clasping the arms of the great chair, each with a thin, shrivelled
hand.

"Aunt Stanbury, Brooke,--Brooke,--wants me to be his--wife!"

[Illustration: "Brooke wants me to be his wife."]

"What!"

"You cannot be more surprised than I have been, Aunt Stanbury; and
there has been no fault of mine."

"I don't believe it," said the old woman.

"Now you may read the letter," said Dorothy, standing up. She was
quite prepared to be obedient, but she felt that her aunt's manner of
receiving the information was almost an insult.

"He must be a fool," said Miss Stanbury.

This was hard to bear, and the colour went and came rapidly across
Dorothy's cheeks as she gave herself a few moments to prepare an
answer. She already perceived that her aunt would be altogether
adverse to the marriage, and that therefore the marriage could never
take place. She had never for a moment allowed herself to think
otherwise, but, nevertheless, the blow was heavy on her. We all know
how constantly hope and expectation will rise high within our own
bosoms in opposition to our own judgment,--how we become sanguine
in regard to events which we almost know can never come to pass. So
it had been with Dorothy. Her heart had been almost in a flutter of
happiness since she had had Brooke's letter in her possession, and
yet she never ceased to declare to herself her own conviction that
that letter could lead to no good result. In regard to her own wishes
on the subject she had never asked herself a single question. As it
had been quite beyond her power to bring herself to endure the idea
of marrying Mr. Gibson, so it had been quite impossible to her not
to long to be Brooke's wife from the moment in which a suggestion to
that effect had fallen from his lips. This was a state of things so
certain, so much a matter of course, that, though she had not spoken
a word to him in which she owned her love, she had never for a moment
doubted that he knew the truth,--and that everybody else concerned
would know it too. But she did not suppose that her wishes would go
for anything with her aunt. Brooke Burgess was to become a rich man
as her aunt's heir, and her aunt would of course have her own ideas
about Brooke's advancement in life. She was quite prepared to submit
without quarrelling when her aunt should tell her that the idea must
not be entertained. But the order might be given, the prohibition
might be pronounced, without an insult to her own fee