the house, tea was waiting on the table for
them. Mara fancied that Moses looked sad and preoccupied as they sat
down to the tea-table, which Mrs. Pennel had set forth festively, with
the best china and the finest tablecloth and the choicest sweetmeats. In
fact, Moses did feel that sort of tumult and upheaving of the soul which
a young man experiences when the great crisis comes which is to plunge
him into the struggles of manhood. It is a time when he wants sympathy
and is grated upon by uncomprehending merriment, and therefore his
answers to Sally grew brief and even harsh at times, and Mara sometimes
perceived him looking at herself with a singular fixedness of
expression, though he withdrew his eyes whenever she turned hers to look
on him. Like many another little woman, she had fixed a theory about
her friends, into which she was steadily interweaving all the facts she
saw. Sally _must_ love Moses, because she had known her from childhood
as a good and affectionate girl, and it was impossible that she could
have been going on with Moses as she had for the last six months without
loving him. She must evidently have seen that he cared for her; and in
how many ways had she shown that she liked his society and him! But then
evidently she did not understand him, and Mara felt a little womanly
self-pluming on the thought that _she_ knew him so much better. She was
resolved that she would talk with Sally about it, and show her that she
was disappointing Moses and hurting his feelings. Yes, she said to
herself, Sally has a kind heart, and her coquettish desire to conceal
from him the extent of her affection ought now to give way to the
outspoken tenderness of real love.

So Mara pressed Sally with the old-times request to stay and sleep with
her; for these two, the only young girls in so lonely a neighborhood,
had no means of excitement or dissipation beyond this occasional
sleeping together--by which is meant, of course, lying awake all night
talking.

When they were alone together in their chamber, Sally let down her long
black hair, and stood with her back to Mara brushing it. Mara sat
looking out of the window, where the moon was making a wide sheet of
silver-sparkling water. Everything was so quiet that the restless dash
of the tide could be plainly heard. Sally was rattling away with her
usual gayety.

"And so the launching is to come off next Thursday. What shall you
wear?"

"I'm sure I haven't thought," said M