nt. What a keen eye he has! What clearly-cut, spirited
features--thin and serious, but graceful! I do like his face, I do like
his aspect, I do like him so much--better than any of those shuffling
curates, for instance--better than anybody; bonny Robert!"

She sought "bonny Robert's" presence speedily. For his part, when she
challenged his sight, I believe he would have passed from before her
eyes like a phantom, if he could; but being a tall fact, and no fiction,
he was obliged to stand the greeting. He made it brief. It was
cousin-like, brother-like, friend-like, anything but lover-like. The
nameless charm of last night had left his manner: he was no longer the
same man: or, at any rate, the same heart did not beat in his breast.
Rude disappointment, sharp cross! At first the eager girl would not
believe in the change, though she saw and felt it. It was difficult to
withdraw her hand from his, till he had bestowed at least something like
a kind pressure; it was difficult to turn her eyes from his eyes, till
his looks had expressed something more and fonder than that cool
welcome.

A lover masculine so disappointed can speak and urge explanation, a
lover feminine can say nothing; if she did, the result would be shame
and anguish, inward remorse for self-treachery. Nature would brand such
demonstration as a rebellion against her instincts, and would
vindictively repay it afterwards by the thunderbolt of self-contempt
smiting suddenly in secret. Take the matter as you find it: ask no
questions, utter no remonstrances; it is your best wisdom. You expected
bread, and you have got a stone: break your teeth on it, and don't
shriek because the nerves are martyrized; do not doubt that your mental
stomach--if you have such a thing--is strong as an ostrich's; the stone
will digest. You held out your hand for an egg, and fate put into it a
scorpion. Show no consternation: close your fingers firmly upon the
gift; let it sting through your palm. Never mind; in time, after your
hand and arm have swelled and quivered long with torture, the squeezed
scorpion will die, and you will have learned the great lesson how to
endure without a sob. For the whole remnant of your life, if you survive
the test--some, it is said, die under it--you will be stronger, wiser,
less sensitive. This you are not aware of, perhaps, at the time, and so
cannot borrow courage of that hope. Nature, however, as has been
intimated, is an excellent friend in such