o me_? She is a noble woman,
whose life has been, thanks to your guidance, beautiful and lofty."

"God knows, I _have_ striven to do my duty by her, but I know what I
should have done if I had ever thought you would wish to change your
relations with her, Duncan."

"The world has not her equal! It is cruel--it is sinful--in you,
mother, to oppose our union."

"She _is_ a lovely woman; but, my son, there are myriads like her."

"No _not one_! Tell me you will never breathe a word of what you
have told me _to her_!"

"Never."

"Oh! thank you! thank you, mother! you could not wish another
daughter."

"But for that I have told you, I could not wish another."

"Then I say you must not work this great injustice on us. Rosalie
loves me. She has promised to be mine. You will break my heart."

"You are deluded and strongly excited, my son, or you would never
speak so to me," said the mother, with that persisting firmness with
which the physician resorts to a desperate remedy for a desperate
disease. Then she spoke to him of all the relations in life he might
yet be called upon to assume; of the misery which very possibly
might follow this union in after days. Hours passed on, and the
conference was not ended, until, with a crushed heart, and a
trembling voice, Duncan arose, abruptly, while his mother yet spoke,
and he said,

"If the conclusion to which you have urged me, in God's sight, is
just, He will give me--He will give Rosalie, too--strength to abide
by it. But I can never speak to her of this, and I must find another
home than yours and hers. You must speak _for me_, mother; and let
me charge you, do it gently. Do not tell her _all_. Let her think
what she will, believe, as she must, that I am a wretch, past
pardon; but do not blight her peace by telling _all_."

"I promise you, Duncan," was the answer, spoken through many tears,
and in the deepest sorrow.

An hour after, he was on the way from the village that he might
spend the coming Sabbath in another town.

And, after he was gone, the mother sought her younger, her dearly
loved child. Rosalie heard that familiar step on the stairway; she
had seen Duncan hurrying away from the house, and she knew the
conference was over; but she had no fear for the result. So she
hushed the glad tumultuous beating of her heart, and tried to veil
the brightness of her eyes as she heard the gentle tapping at her
door that announced the mother coming.

As for Mrs. Mel