n--both mamma and auntie say so--and I can't marry Ned."

"Ned Hardcash? You don't mean to say he was spooney on you?"

"Yes he was, but I told him he was too poor."

"You are very reasonable, Eva."

"You need not talk that way. Mamma would not hear of it. I could not
let him ask her, for she would have been so angry, and she and auntie
would have scolded me; and you don't know how fearfully auntie can
abuse one when she begins."

"How did Ned take your answer?"

"Oh, he just went away, and did not care a bit, and I have not seen
him since."

"He did not care?" thinking I now had the clew to Ned's savage manner
for the week past. "When did it happen?"

"I can't exactly remember: it was soon after we took the parlor.
Auntie would not let me invite him there, and he got angry and jealous
of Mr. Todd, who was with me all the time, and--"

"But that showed he loved you, don't you think so?"

"Well, perhaps he did a little: he told me if I Would trust him he
would not let mamma or auntie scold; but you know that was nonsense. I
would like to see any one prevent them if they want to do it. And he
hadn't any money, and we should have starved: I told him so. Then he
said there was no danger of that: he could manage to keep the wolf
from the door. I knew of course that be could easily keep wolves away,
for there are none here, and I would not live in that horrid West; but
that would not prevent us starving: auntie said we would starve."

"Poor Ned!" I murmured.

"You pity poor Ned," said she, now sobbing, "but you don't pity poor
me at all, and I am the most wretched."

"Come, don't cry, Eva," I said, putting my arm around her: it was very
dark in that corner, and I knew Eva would not fuss about it, as a
certain other person did not long ago. "What shall I do for you, my
dear? Do you want Ned back? I'll tell him and make it up between you:
shall I?"

"No, no! He is so cross and fierce that I should be afraid of him: he
was dreadfully ill-tempered when he left me that night."

"But that was because he loved you, Eva."

"When people love me I don't want them to be disagreeable: I should
not want to vex any one if I loved him."

"You will make a dear, kind, amiable little wife, I know."

"But I don't want to marry Mr. Todd," she said, still sobbing on my
shoulder. "Oh, Charley, what shall I do?"

Could I find a lovelier, more tender, sweeter wife than the girl now
in my arms? My ideas of affectionate women h