ich he and Cornelia should
stand, it had been nothing like that she was now furnishing. It did not
seem at all in the vein which she had opened on the day of her return.
He was puzzled: had he been more used to ladies' society, he would have
mistrusted her sincerity.

"You could never be disagreeable to me!" was his answer: and he looked
down at her oval cheek, with his first attempt at fraternal admiration.
It turned out badly. She looked unexpectedly up: his glance fell through
her tawny eyes, and sank down, burning deliciously, into her heart. She
turned pale with the pain and the pleasure: but it was such pain and
pleasure that she sought, and wanted more of.

"Well, then! it's all clear between us again--is it?" resumed she,
drawing a long breath, which sounded more like the irrepressible
out-come of a tumultuous heart, than a sigh of relieved suspense upon
the point in question. "No more misunderstandings, or any thing? and you
won't get out of the way ally more, as if I were poison--will you?"

"I never did!" protested he, laughing awkwardly. In the last few minutes
he had developed a sentiment hitherto unknown to him--pique! He had been
imagining Cornelia in love with him, and angry at his preference for
Sophie; whereas, it would now seem that the only reason she cared for
him at all, was because he was Sophie's lover: a most correct spirit in
her, no doubt; but, instead of being gratified, as was his duty, he felt
provoked.

"Oh! yes, you behaved shockingly!" rejoined Cornelia, laughing with him.
"Mind! I don't care how devoted you are to Sophie--the more the better;
but, when you do notice me, I want you to do it kindly--won't you?"

"I'll be sure to, now that I know you care any thing about it."

"And what made you think I didn't care about it, if you please, sir?"

"Why," stammered he, quite at a loss what to say, and so coming out with
the truth, "I thought you were offended at my being engaged to Sophie!"

"But what should there be in that to offend me?" demanded Cornelia, with
the mouth and eyes of Innocence.

"I don't know:--well--I knew you first!" he blurted forth, beginning to
wish he had been satisfied to hold his tongue.

Cornelia took her breath once or twice, and then bit it off on her under
lip, as if about to say something, and afterward hesitating about it.

"I don't quite understand you," she managed to get out at last; "do
you--forgive me if I'm wrong--but perhaps you're thinking o