etrayed her excited condition. But Mr.
Phillips acted, spoke, and moved for her, and she was spared an exposure
from which her sensitive spirit would have shrunk.

"Mr. Sullivan!" said he. "Ah! a fine fellow; I know him. Miss Gertrude,
I must tell you an anecdote about that young man;" and moving forward in
the direction in which they had been walking when they met the party
from the concert, he related that he and Mr. Sullivan were, a few years
previous, travelling across an Arabian desert, when the latter proved of
signal service in saving him from a sudden attack by a wandering tribe
of Bedouins. He stopped in his narration and perceived that all danger
of observation was passed, and without ceremony placed her in an
arm-chair just by. "Sit here," said he, "while I bring you a glass of
water." He wrapped her mantle tightly about her and walked quickly away.
Oh, how Gertrude thanked him in her heart for thus considerately leaving
her and giving her time to recover herself! It was the most judicious
thing he could have done, and the kindest. He saw that she would not
faint, and knew that left alone she would soon rally her powers.

When here returned she was perfectly calm. She tasted the water, but he
did not urge her to drink it; he knew she did not require it. "I have
kept you out too long," said he; "come, you had better go in now."

She rose; he put her arm once more through his, guided her feeble steps
to a window which opened into her and Emily's room; and then, pausing a
moment, said in a meaning tone, at the same time enforcing his words by
the fixed glance of his piercing eye, "You exhort me, Miss Gertrude, to
have faith in everybody; but I bid you, all inexperienced as you are, to
beware lest you believe too much. Where you have good foundation for
confidence, abide by it, if you can, firmly, but trust nothing which you
have not fairly tested, and rest assured that the idle gossip of a place
like this is utterly unworthy of credit. Good night." What an utter
revulsion of feeling these words occasioned Gertrude! They came to her
with all the force of a prophecy, and struck deep into her heart.

During their long and regular correspondence no letter had come from
Willie that did not breathe a devoted affection for Gertrude--an
exclusive affection, in which there could be no rivalship. All his
thoughts of home and future happy days were inseparably associated with
her; and although Mrs. Sullivan, with that in