f wild; his words stuck
in his throat, and he took to blushing again like a boy of
fourteen. In fact, he got so angry with himself that he rather
avoided her actual presence, though she was scarcely a moment out
of his sight. Mr. Brown made the best of his son's retreat,
devoted himself most gallantly to Mary, and was completely
captivated by her before bedtime on the first night of their
visit. He triumphed over his wife when they were alone, and
laughed at the groundlessness of her suspicions. But she was by
no means so satisfied on the subject as her husband.

In a day or two, however, Tom began to take heart of grace, and
to find himself oftener at Mary's side, with something to say,
and more to look. But now she, in her turn, began to be
embarrassed; for all attempts to re-establish their old footing
failed, and the difficulty of finding a satisfactory new one
remained to be solved. So for the present, though neither of them
found it quite satisfactory, they took refuge in the presence of
a third party, and attached themselves to Katie, talking at one
another through her. Nothing could exceed Katie's judiciousness
as a medium of communication; and through her a better
understanding began to establish itself, and the visit which both
of them had been looking forward to so eagerly seemed likely,
after all, to be as pleasant in fact as it had been in
anticipation. As they became more at ease, the vigilance of Mrs.
Brown and Mrs. Porter seemed likely to revive. But in a country
house there must be plenty of chances for young folks who mean
it, to be together; and so they found and made use of their
opportunities, giving at the same time as little cause to their
natural guardians as possible for any serious interference. The
families got on, on the whole, so well together, that the visit
was prolonged from the original four or five days to a fortnight;
and this time of grace was drawing to a close when the event
happened which made the visit memorable to our hero.

On the morning in question, Mr. Brown arranged at breakfast that
he and his wife should drive Mr. and Mrs. Porter to make calls on
several of the neighbors. Tom declared his intention of taking a
long day after the partridges, and the young ladies were to go
and make a sketch of the house from a point which Katie had
chosen. Accordingly, directly after luncheon, the carriage came
round, and the elders departed; and the young ladies started
together, carr