as certainly not indifferent in her feelings toward him; but whom he
might never, never hope to possess.

She saw this daily growing, and trembled for the peace of both. She
wondered at the blindness of the doctor, who did not perceive what was
so plain to her own vision. Daily she looked to see the eyes of the
doctor open and some action taken upon the circumstances; but they did
not open to the evil ahead, for the girl and boy! for morning after
morning their hands would be together tying up the same vines, or
clearing out the same flower bed; day after day at the doctor's orders
Traverse attended Clara on her rides; night after night their blushing
faces would be bent over the same sketch book, chess board, or music
sheet.

"Oh! if the doctor cannot and will not see, what shall I do? What ought
I to do?" said the conscientious little woman to herself, dreading above
all things, and equally for her son and the doctor's daughter, the evils
of an unhappy attachment, which she, with her peculiar temperament and
experiences, believed to be the worst of sorrows--a misfortune never to
be conquered or outlived.

"Yes! It is even better that we should leave the house than that
Traverse should become hopelessly attached to Clara; or, worse than all,
that he should repay the doctor's great bounty by winning the heart of
his only daughter," said Marah Rocke to herself; and so "screwing her
courage to the sticking place," she took an opportunity one morning
early while Traverse and Clara were out riding, to go into the study to
speak to the doctor.

As usual, he looked up with a smile to welcome her as she entered; but
her downcast eyes and serious face made him uneasy, and he hastened to
inquire if she was not well, or if anything had happened to make her
anxious, and at the same time he placed a chair and made her sit in it.

"Yes, I am troubled, doctor, about a subject that I scarcely know how to
break to you," she said, in some considerable embarrassment.

"Mrs. Rocke, you know I am your friend, anxious to serve you! Trust in
me, and speak out!"

"Well, sir," said Marah, beginning to roll up the corner of her apron,
in her embarrassment, "I should not presume to interfere, but you do not
see; gentlemen, perhaps, seldom do until it is too late." She paused,
and the good doctor turned his head about, listening first with one ear
and then with the other, as if he thought by attentive hearing he might
come to understand h