ve or gratitude from you, do not leave me
just yet! Oh, Harry! Harry!"

"I will not, mother. If Yanna loves me, she will wait for me."

"If she loves you, she will be glad to wait for you."

"You do not object to Yanna herself, do you, mother? Love her, for my
sake, dear mother! Let me tell her you will. Is she not all you could
wish for me? Is she not good and lovely, beyond comparison?"

"Indeed, I think she is very unworthy of you. I cannot love her yet,
Harry. If you were thinking of May Hervey, or Sarah Holles, I could
bear the loss of you better. Either of these girls would marry you
for a word. May is worth all of a million and a half, and Sarah
nearly a million. In these days, matrimony ought to mean money. My
dear son, do not leave your mother just yet! And if you must engage
yourself to a girl so unworthy your position, at any rate keep it a
profound secret. Even Rose must not be told. Rose is subject to
sentimental confidences, and she is a little conceited, and will not
believe me, if I tell her she is asked out for your sake, and not for
her own. Harry, I love you so much! Will you help me a little longer,
my dear?"

She was trembling with emotion, she was weeping very quietly; but
Harry could see the tears dropping upon her clasped hands. But she did
not for a moment let her feelings overstep her faculties; she knew
right well that a woman ever so little beyond herself is a fool. She
knew also that the modern gentleman is wounded in his self-esteem by a
scene, and is not to be tenderly moved by any signs of mere
pathological distress.

Her self-restraint inspired Harry with respect; and he felt it
impossible to throw off the habit of consideration for "mother above
all others." It had the growth of nearly thirty years; while his
affection for Yanna was comparatively a thing of yesterday. He
promised not to marry while his marriage would be injurious to his
family; and he promised to keep his engagement a secret, if Yanna
accepted him. Nor did he anticipate any difficulty in fulfilling these
promises; while he told himself that, after all, it was only a little
bit of self-denial, which would be amply repaid by his mother's and
sister's happiness and welfare.

He did not think of Yanna, nor of how a secret engagement and a
delayed marriage might affect her; but he was annoyed because these
conditions had not been alluded to in his letter to her. Yanna might
suppose that he had purposely ignored them