arry has
probably received a threatening letter from a Cambridge dun, and your
lively imagination magnifies it into a--(challenge, I was going to add,
but I substituted)--into something dreadful."

"Is that what you really think?" questioned Fanny, fixing her large blue
eyes upon my face inquiringly.

I am the worst hand in the world at playing the hypocrite, and with
ready tact she perceived at once that I was attempting to deceive her.

"Frank," she resumed, "you have seen but little of me since we were
children together, and deem, possibly, that--I am a weak, silly girl,
unfit to be trusted with evil tidings; but indeed, dear brother, you
do me injustice; the sorrows we have gone through" (and her eyes filled
with tears as she spoke), "the necessity for exertion in order to save
mamma as much as possible, have given me more strength of character and
firmness of purpose than girls of my age in general possess; tell me the
truth, and fear not that power will be given me to bear it, be it what
it may; but, if I think you are trying to hide it from me--and do not
hope to deceive me; your face proves that you are as much alarmed
at what you have heard as I am myself, and probably with far better
reason--I shall be unable to forget it, and it will make me miserable."

"Well then," replied I, "thus far I will trust you. I do fear, from what
you have told me, that Oaklands has received some evil tidings relative
to a disagreeable affair in which he was engaged at Cambridge, the
results of which are not fully known at present, and which, I am afraid,
may yet occasion him much care and anxiety."

"And I had fancied him so light-hearted and happy," said Fanny
thoughtfully; "and is this all I am to know about it then?"

"All that I feel myself at liberty to tell at present," ~202~~replied I;
"recollect, darling, it is my friend's secret, not my own, or you should
hear everything."

"Then you will tell me all your secrets if I ask you?" inquired Fanny
archly.

"Whom should I trust or confide in, if not my own dear little sister?"
said I, stroking her golden locks caressingly. "And now," continued I,
rising, "I will go and see whether I can do any good in this affair; but
when Master Harry is in one of his impetuous moods he gets quite beyond
my management."

"Oh! but you can influence him," exclaimed Fanny, her bright eyes
sparkling with animation; "you can calm his impetuosity with your own
quiet good sense and clear