resolved not to suffer herself to be drawn into the meshes.
She felt a new, strange influence creeping over her, to which she was
half afraid, half too haughty to yield without a struggle.

"Mr. Lansdowne, I am happy yo learn you place some value on our
friendship, as we do on yours. But surely, your own home, such as you
have described it to me, must be the most attractive spot on earth to
you".

"Is it possible", said Mr. Lansdowne vehemently, taking her hand and
holding it fast in his, "that you cannot understand me,--that you do
not know that I love you infinitely more than father, or mother, or
any human creature?"

Surprised at the abruptness of this outburst, bewildered and
distressed by her own conflicting emotions, Adele knew not what to
say, and wished only to fly away into solitude that she might collect
her scattered powers.

"Mr. Lansdowne, I am not prepared for this. Let me go. I must leave
you", she exclaimed.

Suddenly drawing her hand from his, she fled to her own room, locked
the door and burst into a passionate flood of tears. Poor child! Her
lover with his unpractised hand, had opened a new chapter in her life,
too precipitately. She was not prepared for its revelations, and the
shock had shaken her a little too rudely.

John remained sitting, white and dumb, as if a thunderbolt had fallen
upon him.

"Gone! gone!" he exclaimed at length, "she does not love me! And, fool
that I was, I have frightened her from me forever!"

He bowed his head upon the table and uttered a groan of despair.

Mr. Lansdowne returned to the solitude of his own room, sufficiently
miserable. He feared he had offended Adele past healing. Looking over
the events of the week, he thought he could perceive that she had been
teased by his attentions, and that she wished to indicate this by the
coolness of her manner and words to him, during their recent
interview. And he had recklessly, though unwittingly, put the climax
to her annoyance by this abrupt disclosure of his love. He berated
himself unmercifully for his folly. For a full hour, he believed that
his blundering impetuosity had cost him the loss of Adele forever.

But it is hard for hope to forsake the young. It can never wholly
leave any soul, except by a slow process of bitter disappointment.
John saw that he had made a mistake. The strength and tumult of his
passion for Adele had led him thoughtlessly into what probably
appeared to her, an attempt to storm t