for
the page."

"Let it remain there till I am allowed to tear it out."

"I will write it, and it shall never be torn out. You I cannot marry.
Him I will not marry. You may believe me, Johnny, when I say there
can never be a third."

"And is that to be the end of it?"

"Yes;--that is to be the end of it. Not the end of our friendship.
Old maids have friends."

"It shall not be the end of it. There shall be no end of it with me."

"But, John--"

"Do not suppose that I will trouble you again,--at any rate not for a
while. In five years' time perhaps,--"

"Now, Johnny, you are laughing at me. And of course it is the best
way. If there is not Grace, and she has caught me before I have
turned back. Good-by, dear, dear John. God bless you. I think you the
finest fellow in the world. I do, and so does mamma. Remember always
that there is a temple at Allington in which your worship is never
forgotten." Then she pressed his hand and turned away from him to
meet Grace Crawley. John did not stop to speak a word to his cousin,
but pursued his way alone.

"That cousin of yours," said Lily, "is simply the dearest,
warmest-hearted, finest creature that ever was seen in the shape of a
man."

"Have you told him that you think him so?" said Grace.

"Indeed, I have," said Lily.

"But have you told this finest, warmest, dearest creature that he
shall be rewarded with the prize he covets?"

"No, Grace. I have told him nothing of the kind. I think he
understands it all now. If he does not, it is not for the want of my
telling him. I don't suppose any lady was ever more open-spoken to a
gentleman that I have been to him."

"And why have you sent him away disappointed? You know you love him."

"You see, my dear," said Lily, "you allow yourself, for the sake of
your argument, to use a word in a double sense, and you attempt to
confound me by doing so. But I am a great deal too clever for you,
and have thought too much about it, to be taken in in that way. I
certainly love your cousin John; and so do I love Mr. Boyce, the
vicar."

"You love Johnny much better than you do Mr. Boyce."

"True; very much better; but it is of the same sort of love. However,
it is a great deal too deep for you to understand. You're too young,
and I shan't try to explain it. But the long and the short of it
is,--I am not going to marry your cousin."

"I wish you were," said Grace, "with all my heart."

John Eames as he returned to the cottage