uel they would be, what cutting things
they would say to me!" she cried.

And he laughed.

"Dainty, I believe you are an arrant coward, after all, as your cousin
Olive told me this morning."

"Did she say so?"--angrily, the blue eyes flashing.

"Yes; she said you were the most cowardly girl on earth--afraid of your
own shadow--and always in hysterics over something, so that she and Ela
were sorry you came, dreading that you would annoy your aunt."

"Oh, it is false!" she cried, indignantly. "She only said it to turn
your heart against me. And I--I will show her after this whether I am a
coward or not!"

"That is right, my little sweetheart. I adore bravery in women, and I
want you to prove Olive's story false," he cried, encouragingly; adding:
"Of course, if you wish to keep our engagement secret awhile, I will
consent to it; but it seems rather cruel to two of our visitors, who are
already palpably jealous of me. But I warn you, Dainty, not to flirt
with them, for I am the most jealous of men."

"You need not be afraid of me. I can think of no one but you, dear
Love!" she whispered, with the loveliest blush in the world.

They rejoined their companions, and Love forced himself to obey the
demands of conventionality by showing some attention to the other
guests; but his heart was not in his courtesies. He could think only of
the bonny sweetheart he had won by such headlong wooing.

"And it is only yesterday that I saw her first, my darling!" he mused,
tenderly. "It was love at first sight with us both, it seems, and I take
that for a sure sign that Heaven intended us for each other."

CHAPTER VIII.

THE ELLSWORTH HONOR.

"Of all that life can teach us,
There's naught so true as this:
The winds of Fate blow ever,
But ever blow amiss."

Since the world began there was never a truer, sweeter love, nor one
that promised more fairly, but, alas! none over which threatening clouds
of Fate ever hung more darkly.

Two weeks passed away, and the lovers kept the secret of their
engagement with difficulty, for Love was passionately anxious to show
his happiness to the whole world.

But Dainty's shrinking from her cousins' comments made her hold her
lover to the compact of silence, hoping by delay to win from them more
kindly thoughts.

And yet every one could see the handsome young pair were in love with
each other.

They could no more hide their mutual tenderness than they coul