ally
inclined to think that any answer from a lady may be taken as having
in it some glimmer of favour. And ladies know this so well, that
they almost regard any reply on their own part, short of an absolute
refusal, as an acceptance. If a lady bids a gentleman wait awhile
for his answer, he thinks himself quite justified in letting all
the world know that she is his own. We all know what a reference to
a parent's judgment means. A lady must be very decisive--very, if
she means to have her "no" taken at its full meaning. Now Caroline
Waddington had not been very decisive.

Whatever Bertram's thoughts or his hopes might be, he said nothing
more on the present occasion. He walked silently down the hill by her
side, somewhat moody-looking, but yet not with the hang-dog aspect
of a rejected suitor. There was a fire in his eyes and a play upon
his countenance which did not tell of hope altogether extinguished.
Before they were at the foot of the hill, he had resolved that he
would have Caroline Waddington for his wife, let the difficulties in
his way be what they might. But then he was ever so keen to resolve;
so often beaten from his resolutions!

And Caroline also walked silently down the hill. She knew that she
had given an ambiguous answer, and was content to let it remain so.
In the silence of her chamber, she would think over this thing and
make her calculations. She would inquire into her own mind, and learn
whether she could afford to love this man whom she could not but
acknowledge to be so loveable. As for asking any one else, seeking
counsel in the matter from her aunt, that never for a moment
suggested itself to Caroline Waddington.

They had left Miss Baker and Miss Todd at the bottom of the hill. It
was a beautiful evening, and those ladies had consented to sit down
and rest there while the more enthusiastic and young lovers of the
mount ascended to the spot of which Bertram was so fond. But in
giving that consent, they had hardly expected that such encroachment
would be made on their good-nature. When Caroline and Bertram again
found them, the daylight had almost waned away.

CHAPTER XI.

VALE VALETE.

Miss Baker was a little querulous at being left so long sitting with
Miss Todd at the corner of the garden wall; but Miss Todd was never
querulous: she was one of those good-humoured persons who never
complain, and find some antidote to every ill in life, even in the
ill itself. True, she had be