, still very quietly, for she grew almost wild
with excitement, 'how is this? Why has Randolph gone? have you had any
quarrel?'

"'Quarrel! God help you--no!--how should that be? don't I love the
very dust he treads on!' she screamed out violently at last, and went
into a hysteric fit. The sound of her maniacal voice brought her
brother to the door with anxious inquiry, but as I told him Mary was a
little over excited, and quiet would soon restore her, at my earnest
request he retired. In a short time I was able, with bathing her head
in cold water, and constantly soothing her with low murmuring tones of
endearment, to see her sobbing herself into a troubled sleep, and as I
looked on her beautiful face, pale as marble, and the black hair
wetted and matted back from her fine brow, I felt that I saw a double
victim to the cruel indifference of others, and the violent emotions
of her own untutored nature."

Alice and Louisa Stanwood had gazed steadily into the face of their
grandmother, while in the relation of this true story, it lighted up
with remembered emotion.

"Poor, poor girl!" said they; "but where, then, was Mr. Gardener all
this while? Surely he must have relented."

"Truth compels me to say, my romantic girls, that this quiet-loving
lover, to all human appearance, was not in the least disturbed.
Indeed, as I listened to the painful breathings of Mary, every now and
then catching, as if for life, at a breath, and then hushed into all
but dead silence, I was distinctly aware of certain audible
demonstrations of profound composure on the part of Mr. Gardner. In
sooth, he was not a lover for a romance writer at all; but such as he
was--and you must remember our agreement was that I should only relate
facts, not account for them--such as he was, he rose with the lark and
took his usual walk, to promote his appetite and prolong his life.

"When he returned, as Mary was too unwell to go down stairs, I
descended to the breakfast-room where I found Mr. Dunbar uneasily
walking the room.

"'How is Mary?' said he, the moment he saw me? 'No better? Tell her to
be comforted--be quiet. God forbid I should do any thing to make her
unhappy. I will speak to Mr. Gardner about the matter myself, and tell
him it can't be.'

"His earnest manner quite convinced me that however he might seem, his
sister was really very near his heart, and 'albeit unused to the
melting mood,' I felt my eyes fill with tears, as I turned and ran