ore Meeta heard
again of her lover. Then there came a letter to her, which was full of
the great cities through which Ernest had passed, the home to which he
had come, and the new life which was opening to him there. In his
descriptions his uncle seemed a very grand gentleman, and his uncle's
housekeeper almost as grand a lady. He told of the new wardrobe which
had been provided for him, the acquaintances to whom he had been
introduced, and the studies he had commenced. And in all this Meeta saw
but the first step towards that grandeur which she had predicted for
him, and she rejoiced.

Four or five such letters were received by Meeta, each full of her
lover himself; but they came at lengthening intervals, and during the
third year she received from him only messages sent through his father,
though every message still conveyed a promise to write soon. The letters
of Ernest showed that he had made great advances in scholarship during
his residence in Germany, and to all but Meeta herself, and perhaps her
mother, they gave equal evidence that his heart was not with the home or
the friends he had left in America. But no shadow ever passed over the
transparent face of Meeta. Ernest was to her still the frank, ardent,
simple-hearted boy whom she had loved so long and so truly. She was
still his promised wife. Her quick sensibility to all which touched him
made her feel that there was a change in the tone with which her father
named him, and an expression, half of anger, half of pity, on his face
when she alluded to him. It was an expression which gave her pain,
though she did not understand its meaning; and she ceased to speak of
Ernest, lest she should call it up; but his locket lay next her heart,
his letters were well-nigh worn away with frequent reading, and no day
passed in which she did not visit the oak beneath which they had parted,
and beneath which she fondly believed they were to meet again.

During the fourth year of Ernest's absence his letters to his father
became more frequent, and sometimes inclosed a few lines to Meeta. To
both he expressed a strong desire to stay one more year abroad, alleging
that to interrupt his studies now would be to render all his past labors
unavailing. There was hardly a struggle in Meeta's mind in yielding her
almost matured hopes to what seemed so reasonable a wish of Ernest; but
the elder Rainer was not so easily won to compliance. Urgent
representations from his brother as well