e and frank
and child-like than most women, let me see the desire more clearly than
women mostly do. That's why I love her. She is natural and lovable and
lovely. Don't tell me that I can't win her heart. I know I may have
touched her fancy, but that is not enough. Let me have the chance, and I
think that I can go deeper still."

"You said that you would be serious, but you don't know how serious this
is to me," said Janetta, the tears rising to her eyes. "My father told
me to take care of her: she is very young--and not very wise; and how am
I to know whether you mean what you say?"

"I do mean it, indeed!" said Cuthbert, in a much graver tone. "I have
got into the habit of talking as if I felt very little--a ridiculous
habit, I acknowledge--but, in this matter, I mean it from the bottom of
my heart."

"I suppose, then," said Janetta, tremulously, "that you must speak to
mamma--and to Nora. I am not at all the head of the house, although you
are pleased--in fun--to call me so. I am only Nora's half-sister, fond
of her and anxious about her, and ready to do all that I can do for her
good."

Cuthbert looked at her intently. Her face was pale, and the black dress
that she wore was not altogether becoming to her dark eyes and
complexion, but there was something pathetic to him in the weight of
care which seemed to sit upon those young brows and bear down the
slender shoulders of the girl. The new sensation thus given caused him
to say, with sudden earnestness--

"Will you forgive me for having spoken and acted so thoughtlessly? I
never meant to cause you so much anxiety. You see, I am not very well
acquainted with English ways, and I may have made more mistakes than I
knew. When Nora is my wife you shall not have to fear for her
happiness."

"You speak very confidently of making her your wife," said Janetta,
forgiving him in her heart, nevertheless. "But you have no house--no
profession, have you?"

"No income, you mean?" said Cuthbert, with his merry smile. "Oh, yes, I
have a profession. It does not pay me quite so well as it might do, but
I think I shall do better by-and-bye. Then I have a couple of hundreds a
year of my own. Is it too much of a pittance to begin upon?"

"Nora is quite too young to begin upon anything. If only you would leave
her alone for a year or two!--till she is a little more staid and
sensible!"

"But that's too late, don't you see? That's where my apologies have to
come in. I have dis