t to be gay--to have a
ball--to----We shall have _such_ a ball the day of our wedding,
Adolphus!"

"Your hopes deceive you, dearest Christina. I know your father better
than you do. Ah!" he added, gazing sadly on the beautiful features of
the young girl who looked on him so brightly, "you will never be able
to resist the brilliant offer that will be made you in exchange for
one faithful, loving heart."

"Indeed!" replied Christina, feeling her eyes filling with tears, but
endeavouring at the same time to conceal her emotion under an
affectation of anger, "your opinion of me is not very flattering; and
it is not in very good taste, methinks, to play the despairing lover,
especially after the conversation you so honourably overheard."

"Dry that tear, dear girl!" said Adolphus, "I will believe any thing
you like."

"Why do you make me cry then? Is it only to have the pleasure of
telling me to dry my tears? Or did you think you had some rival; some
splendid cavalier that it was impossible to resist--Count Ericson, for
instance?"

"Oh! as to Ericson I am not at all uneasy. I know you hate him; and
besides he is not much richer than myself; but, dear Christina"----

"Well--go on," said the girl, mocking the lugubrious tone of her
cousin--"what are you sighing again for?"

"Your father is going to bring you a new lover this evening, and poor
Adolphus will be forgotten."

"You deserve it for all your ridiculous suspicions: but you are my
cousin, and I forgive you this once." She looked at him with so sunny
a smile, and so clear and open-hearted a countenance, that it was
impossible to entertain a doubt.

"You love me really, then?" he said--"truly--faithfully?"

"I have told you so a hundred times," replied his cousin. "I am
astonished you are not tired of hearing the same thing over and over
again."

"'Tis so sweet, so new a thing for me," said Adolphus, "and I could
listen to it for ever."

"Well, then, we love each other--that's very clear," said Christina,
with the solemnity of the foreman of a jury delivering a verdict on
the clearest evidence; "but since my father won't let us marry, we
must wait--that is almost as clear as the other."

"And if he never consents?" enquired Adolphus.

"Never!" exclaimed Christina, to whom such an idea seemed never to
have occurred, "can it be possible he will _never_ consent?"

"I fear it is too possible," replied Adolphus, and the shadow fell on
his face again.

"W