he had done in his boyish days about
less important matters, and the chief interest of her life now, as then,
was in throwing herself heartily into all his plans and prospects.

But on one subject he was for the most part silent, and his sister could
only guess at the motives that had chiefly decided him in returning to
Gershom, and at the hopes he might be cherishing with regard to Miss
Langden, and of both motives and hopes she was afraid. She was afraid
that disappointment awaited him, and that the end of it would be to
unsettle him again, and to disgust him with the life he had chosen.

Elizabeth's knowledge of the tacit engagement existing between Miss
Essie and Mr Maxwell made her anxious and unhappy about her brother,
and at the same time it made it difficult for her to say anything that
might incline him to speak more freely to her. For Clifton's first
successful visit to Mr Langden had by no means been his last. Business
took him southward several times during the year, and more than one
visit united business with pleasure. Once he had seen Miss Langden in
her aunt's house in New York, and once he had turned aside to one of the
fashionable summer resorts in the mountains where she was staying with
her aunt's family. He enjoyed both visits, as may be supposed. Miss
Essie was as bright and sweet as ever, and doubtless enjoyed them also.

Even Mrs Weston, who had seen a good deal more of society, and of the
world in general, than her niece, acknowledged that the young Canadian
carried himself well, and held his place among the idle gentlemen who
were helping them and their friends to spend their summer days
agreeably. Mrs Weston would have been as well pleased if he had not
carried himself so well, or made himself so agreeable, as far as her
niece was concerned, though she did not allow him to suspect any such
feelings, and had self-respect enough to say nothing to her niece till
after their visitors had departed.

She did not say much to her even then. She laughed a little at her and
the conquest she had made, declaring that if she were determined to
spend her life in the far North, it would be wise to give up all
thoughts of the parsonage, and make good her claim to be the great lady
of Gershom. Mrs Weston had always laughed at the idea of the
parsonage, and had no thought of allowing her pretty niece to betake
herself to the far North in any circumstances. But she did not express
herself very openl