! I am very much afraid for you now,
Alick," she proceeded with mock gravity. "What hope can a poor Captain
of Highlanders, even if he does happen to be a wounded hero or two, have
against a distinguished essayist and landscape painter; if it were a
common case indeed, but where Wisdom herself is concerned--"

"Military frivolity cannot hope," returned Alick, with a shake of his
head, and a calm matter-of-fact acquiescent tone.

"Ah, poor Alick," pursued his sister, "you always were a discreet youth;
but to be connected with such a union of learning, social science, and
homeaopathy, soared beyond my utmost ambition. I suppose the wedding
tour--supposing the happy event to take place--will be through a series
of model schools and hospitals, ending in Hanwell."

"No," said Alick, equally coolly, "to the Dutch reformatory, and the
Swiss cretin asylum."

She was exceedingly tickled at his readiness, and proceeded in a
pretended sentimental tone, "I am glad you have revealed the secrets of
your breast. I saw there was a powerful attraction and that you were
no longer your own, but my views were humbler. I thought the profound
respect with which you breathed the name of Avonmouth, was due to the
revival of the old predilection for our sweet little--"

"Hush, Bessie," said her brother, roused for the first time into
sternness, "this is more than nonsense. One word more of this, and you
will cut me off from my greatest rest and pleasure."

"From the lawn where croquet waits his approbation," was on Bessie's
tongue, but she did not say it. There were moments when she stood in
fear of her brother. He paused, and as if perceiving that his vehemence
was in itself suspicious, added, "Remember, I never met her from seven
years old till after her marriage. She has been the kindest of friends
in right of our fathers' old friendship. You know how her mother nursed
me, and the sister she was to me. And Bessie, if your selfishness--I
wish I could call it thoughtlessness--involves her innocent simplicity
in any scrape, derogatory to what is becoming her situation, I shall
find it very hard to forgive you, and harder still to forgive myself for
letting you come here."

Bessie pouted for a moment, but her sweetness and good humour were never
away. "There, you have given your wicked little sister a screed," she
said, looking insinuatingly up at him. "Just as if I did not think her a
darling, and would not for the world do anything to s