his face as beginning to take counsel with
him, 'you think it is right to assume a new tie that must have higher
claims than the prior one that Heaven sent me.'

'Nay, dearest, is not the new one instituted by Heaven? If I promise
that I will be as entirely Maria's brother as you are her sister, and
will reverence her affliction, or more truly her innocence, in the same
way, will you not trust her, as well as yourself, with me?'

'Trust, oh! indeed I do, and am thankful. But I am thinking of you!
Poor dear Maria might be a drag, where I should not! And I cannot leave
her to any of the others. She could not be long without me.'

'Well, faithless one, we may have to wait the longer; though I feel that
you alone would be happiest fighting up the hill with me.'

'Oh, thank you for knowing that so well.'

'But as we both have these ties, and as, besides, I should be a shabby
adventurer to address you but on equal terms, we must be content to wait
till--as with God's blessing I trust to do--I have made a home smooth
enough for Maria as well as for you! Will that do, Phoebe?'

'Somehow it seems too much,' murmured Phoebe; 'and yet I knew it of you.'

'And as you both have means of your own, it may bring the time nearer,'
he said. 'There, you see I can calculate on your fortune, though I still
wish it were out of the way.'

'If it were not for Maria, I should.'

'And now with this hope and promise, I feel as if, even if it were seven
years, they would be like so many days,' said Humfrey. 'You will not be
of those, my Phoebe, who suffer and are worn by a long engagement?'

'One cannot tell without a trial,' said Phoebe; 'but indeed I do not see
why security and rest, or even hope deferred, should hurt me. Surely,
having a right to think about you cannot do so?'

And her look out of those honest clear gray eyes was one of the most
perfect reliance and gladness.

'May I be worthy of those thoughts!' he fervently said. 'And you will
write to me--even when I go back to the Ottawa?'

'I shall be so glad to tell you everything, and have your letters! Oh!
no, with them I am not going to pine'--and her strong young nature
laughed at the folly.

'And while God gives me strength, we will not be afraid,' he answered.
'Phoebe, I looked at the last chapter of Proverbs last night, and thought
you were like that woman of strength and skill on whose "lips is the law
of kindness." And "you are not afraid of the snow," a