eeping the heavy curls
back from her brow, gazed sadly and earnestly down into her eyes. Those
soft blue eyes, that filled with tears beneath the sad pathos of his
gaze.

"Lina!" His hand began to tremble among her curls. He bent his forehead
down, and rested it on her shoulders sighing heavily.

"Tell me--do tell me what I have done," said the gentle girl, weeping;
"or, is it Ralph? Oh, sir, he cannot have intended to wound you!"

"Ralph!" exclaimed the General, starting up, with a flush of the brow.
"Do not speak of him; never let me hear his name on your lips again!"

"What? Ralph--never speak of Ralph? You do not mean it. Indeed, I am
quite sure, you do not mean it. Not speak of Ralph? Dear General, if he
has done anything wrong, let me run for him at once, and he will beg
your pardon--oh, how willingly! Not speak of Ralph? Ah, you are teasing
me, General, because you know--that is, you guess--it would break my
heart not to think of him every minute of my life."

"Silence, girl; I must not hear this," said the old man, dashing his
hand aside with a violence that scattered Lina's hair all over her
shoulders.

"General," said Lina, lifting up her eyes, all brimming with tears, and
regarding him with the look of a grieved cherub: "don't terrify me so.
What have I done? What has Ralph done? For the whole world we would not
displease you, after all your kindness. Indeed, indeed we are too happy
for anything evil to come within our thoughts."

"And you are happy, girl?"

"Very, very happy. It seems to me that all the earth has blossomed
afresh. I thought this morning, that the sunshine never was so bright as
it is to-day, and what few leaves are left on the branches, seem more
beautiful than roses in full flower. Dear, dear General, it is something
to have made two young creatures so happy! I thought last night, for
life seemed so sweet that I could not waste it in slumber--and when the
moonbeams came stealing in around me, making the curtains luminous, like
summer clouds--I thought that you must have such heavenly dreams and
grateful prayers to God, for giving you power--so like his own--that of
filling young souls with this beautiful, beautiful joy!"

"Ah!" said the General, with a deep sigh; "all this must change, my poor
child. I thought yours was but a pretty love-dream, that would pass over
in a week."

"Oh, do not say that--do not say your consent was not real--that you
have trilled with two young creat