demonstrative," remarked Miss Keeldar.
"Why did you not give Moore your hand when he offered you his? He is
your cousin; you like him. Are you ashamed to let him perceive your
affection?"

"He perceives all of it that interests him. No need to make a display of
feeling."

"You are laconic; you would be stoical if you could. Is love, in your
eyes, a crime, Caroline?"

"Love a crime! No, Shirley; love is a divine virtue. But why drag that
word into the conversation? It is singularly irrelevant."

"Good!" pronounced Shirley.

The two girls paced the green lane in silence. Caroline first resumed.

"Obtrusiveness is a crime, forwardness is a crime, and both disgust; but
love! no purest angel need blush to love. And when I see or hear either
man or woman couple shame with love, I know their minds are coarse,
their associations debased. Many who think themselves refined ladies and
gentlemen, and on whose lips the word 'vulgarity' is for ever hovering,
cannot mention 'love' without betraying their own innate and imbecile
degradation. It is a low feeling in their estimation, connected only
with low ideas for them."

"You describe three-fourths of the world, Caroline."

"They are cold--they are cowardly--they are stupid on the subject,
Shirley! They never loved--they never were loved!"

"Thou art right, Lina. And in their dense ignorance they blaspheme
living fire, seraph-brought from a divine altar."

"They confound it with sparks mounting from Tophet."

The sudden and joyous clash of bells here stopped the dialogue by
summoning all to the church.

CHAPTER XVIII.

WHICH THE GENTEEL READER IS RECOMMENDED TO SKIP, LOW PERSONS BEING HERE
INTRODUCED.

The evening was still and warm; close and sultry it even promised to
become. Round the descending sun the clouds glowed purple; summer tints,
rather Indian than English, suffused the horizon, and cast rosy
reflections on hillside, house-front, tree-bole, on winding road and
undulating pasture-ground. The two girls came down from the fields
slowly. By the time they reached the churchyard the bells were hushed;
the multitudes were gathered into the church. The whole scene was
solitary.

"How pleasant and calm it is!" said Caroline.

"And how hot it will be in the church!" responded Shirley. "And what a
dreary long speech Dr. Boultby will make! And how the curates will
hammer over their prepared orations! For my part, I would rather not
enter."

"But my unc