possibly might influence her
to shorten her absence. Not because the society of the selfish girl was
essential, or even conducive, to my happiness--far from it--but because
her excellent father, who so worshipped and idolized his only child that
he would have thought no sacrifice too great to promote her enjoyment,
was at the very time, amid all the discomfort of a crowded
watering-place, hovering between life and death, and I was disgusted at
the heartlessness which voluntarily left the fondest of parents deprived
of all female tending, to the charge of a hired nurse and an unskillful
though willing youth like myself. That eternity might, in Miss Clinton's
absence, set a seal to the life of her father was a thought which in my
indignation I was on the point of uttering, but I checked myself,
unwilling to interfere too far in a matter which came not within my
rightful province, and perhaps excite unnecessary alarm in Isabel. If
selfishness mingled at all in my views, dear Gerty, and made me
over-impatient for the return of the daughter to her post of duty, it
was that I might be released from almost constant attendance upon my
invalid friend, and hasten to her from whom I hoped such warmth of
greeting as I was only eager to bestow. Can you wonder, then, that your
reception struck cold upon my throbbing heart?"

"But you understand the cause of that coldness now," said Gertrude,
looking up at him through a rain of tears, which like a summer
sun-shower reflected itself in rainbow smiles upon her happy
countenance. "You know now why I dared not let my heart speak out."

"And this was all, then?" cried Willie; "and you are free, and I may
love you still?"

"Free from all bonds, dear Willie, but those which you yourself clasped
around me, and which have encircled me from my childhood."

And now, with heart pressed to heart, they pour in each other's ear the
tale of mutual affection, planted in infancy, nourished in youth,
fostered and strengthened amid separation and absence, and perfected
through trial, to bless and sanctify every year of their after life.

"But, Gerty," exclaimed Willie as, confidence restored, they sat side by
side conversing freely of the past, "how could you think for an instant
that Isabel Clinton would have power to displace you in my regard? I was
not guilty of so great an injustice towards you; for even when I
believed myself supplanted by another, I fancied that other hero of such
shining qua