d talk. Give me your hand. Haven't I got gypsy eyes? I will
tell your fortune."

Dear little bright-faced Fanny! I smiled a real smile when she took my
hand.

"It is about a girl?" she said, half inquiringly.

I colored, though it was only Fanny, and nodded,--

"Yes."

"You love the girl?" she continued, after a pause.

"I _do_ love the girl!" I said, earnestly,--for, now that the curtain
was lifted, she might see all she chose.

"And she loves you?"

"No,--I think so,--I don't know," was my satisfactory reply.

"But why don't you ask her?"

"I _have_ asked her."

"And what did she say? I wish, Charley, you would begin at the beginning
and tell me all about it. How can I help you, if I don't know?"

I was glad enough to do it. I began at the beginning, and told all there
was to tell. It was not much,--for the beauty, the goodness, the
patience of Rachel could not be told. When all was over, she said,--

"I am glad you have told me, for I can make you easy on one point. She
loves you. Ah, I can see! Women can always see, but men are stupid. Your
declaration was too sudden. She might have thought you were forced into
it. She is too high-minded to take advantage of a moment when your
feelings were all excited. Wait awhile. Let her see that you do not
change, and she will give you just such an answer as you will like to
hear. Why, Charley, I like her better for not accepting you than for
anything you have told about her."

"Well, Fanny," I said, half sighing, "it may be so,--I hope it may be
so; but if it does turn out as you say, how shall we manage about Aunt
Huldah? You know how she feels; and then there is Alice."

"What a brother you are!" exclaimed Fanny. "No sooner do I get you out
of one difficulty than you go beating against another! Perhaps _I_
shan't like her; then how will you manage about _me_? It is not every
girl I will take for a sister! And as for Alice, do you think she is
waiting for you all this time, vain man? She's got another beau. But
now," she went on, as soon as she could stop laughing, "go to bed, and
sleep easy, knowing that Rachel loves you, for I have said it. She loves
you too well to take you at your word. I hope she isn't too good for
you. I will think it all over, and see what can be done. Good night!
Kiss me now for what I have told you, just as you would Rachel, if she
had told you herself."

And I did, almost.

The next afternoon Fanny and I went out for a long walk