loved Olivia, it is once for all. You
would never conquer it. Do you think that this is true? Be candid with
us."

"Yes," I answered, "it is true. I could never love again as I love
Olivia."

"Then, my dear Martin," said Johanna, very softly, "do you wish to keep
Julia to her promise?"

I started violently. What! Did Julia wish to be released from that
semi-engagement, and be free? Was it possible that any one else coveted
my place in her affections, and in the new house which we had fitted up
for ourselves? I felt like the dog in the manger. It seemed an
unheard-of encroachment for any person to come between my cousin Julia
and me.

"Do you ask me to set you free from your promise, Julia?" I asked,
somewhat sternly.

"Why, Martin," she said, averting her face from me, "you know I should
never consent to marry you, with the idea of your caring most for that
girl. No, I could never do that. If I believed you would ever think of
me as you used to do before you saw her, well, I would keep true to you.
But is there any hope of that?"

"Let us be frank with one another," I answered; "tell me, is there any
one else whom you would marry if I release you from this promise, which
was only given, perhaps, to soothe my mothers last hours?"

Julia hung her head, and did not speak. Her lips trembled. I saw her
take Johanna's hand and squeeze it, as if to urge her to answer the
question.

"Martin," said Johanna, "your happiness is dear to every one of us. If
we had believed there was any hope of your learning to love Julia as she
deserves, and as a man ought to love his wife, not a word of this would
have been spoken. But we all feel there is no such hope. Only say there
is, and we will not utter another word."

"No," I said, "you must tell me all now. I cannot let the question rest
here. Is there any one else whom Julia would marry if she felt quite
free?"

"Yes," answered Johanna, while Julia hid her face in her hands, "she
would marry my brother."

Captain Carey! I fairly gasped for breath. Such an idea had never once
occurred to me; though I knew she had been spending most of her time
with the Careys at the Vale. Captain Carey to marry! and to marry Julia!
To go and live in our house! I was struck dumb, and fancied that I had
heard wrongly. All the pleasant, distant vision of a possible marriage
with Julia, when my passion had died out, and I could be content in my
affection and esteem for her--all this vanished