up, especially when it comes in the likeness of the first lover who
touches a young girl's heart. Rose had just begun to feel that perhaps
this cousin, despite his faults, might yet become the hero that he
sometimes looked, and the thought that she might be his inspiration was
growing sweet to her, although she had not entertained it until
very lately. Alas, how short the tender dream had been, how rude the
awakening! How impossible it would be ever again to surround that fallen
figure with all the romance of an innocent fancy or gift it with the
high attributes beloved by a noble nature!

Breathing heavily in the sudden sleep that kindly brought a brief
oblivion of himself, he lay with flushed cheeks, disordered hair, and
at his feet the little rose that never would be fresh and fair again a
pitiful contrast now to the brave, blithe young man who went so gaily
out that morning to be so ignominiously overthrown at night.

Many girls would have made light of a trespass so readily forgiven by
the world, but Rose had not yet learned to offer temptation with a smile
and shut her eyes to the weakness that makes a man a brute. It always
grieved or disgusted her to see it in others, and now it was very
terrible to have it brought so near not in its worst form, by any means,
but bad enough to wring her heart with shame and sorrow and fill
her mind with dark forebodings for the future. So she could only sit
mourning for the Charlie that might have been while watching the Charlie
that was with an ache in her heart which found no relief till, putting
her hands there as if to ease the pain, they touched the pansies, faded
but still showing gold among the somber purple, and then two great tears
dropped on them as she sighed: "Ah, me! I do need heart's-ease sooner
than I thought!"

Her uncle's step made her spring up and unlock the door, showing him
such an altered face that he stopped short, ejaculating in dismay, "Good
heavens, child! What's the matter?" adding, as she pointed to the sofa
in pathetic silence, "Is he hurt? ill? dead?"

"No, Uncle, he is--" She could not utter the ugly word but whispered
with a sob in her throat, "Be kind to him," and fled away to her own
room, feeling as if a great disgrace had fallen on the house.

Chapter 10 THE SAD AND SOBER PART

"How will he look? What will he say? Can anything make us forget and be
happy again?" were the first questions Rose asked herself as soon as she
woke from