e to pass that, hereafter, she too shall have a lover
among the cherubim? "What can I say to you?" replied Patience to the
young man's earnest entreaty. "If she were mine to give, I would give
her to you instantly."

"Then you think there is no chance. If I thought that, why should I
trouble her again?"

"I do not say so. Do you not know, Mr. Newton, that in such matters
even sisters can hardly tell their thoughts to each other? How can
they when they do not even know their own wishes?"

"She does not hate me then?"

"Hate you! no;--she does not hate you. But there are so many degrees
between hating and that kind of love which you want from her! You may
be sure of this, that she so esteems you that your persistence cannot
lessen you in her regard."

He was still pleading his case with the elder sister,--very uselessly
indeed, as he was aware; but having fallen on the subject of his love
it was impossible for him to change it for any other,--when Clarissa
came into the room swinging her hat in her hand. She had been over
at Miss Spooner's house and was full of Miss Spooner's woes and
complaints. As soon as she had shaken hands with her lover and spoken
the few words of courtesy which the meeting demanded of her, she
threw herself into the affairs of Miss Spooner as though they were of
vital interest. "She is determined to be unhappy, Patty, and it is no
use trying to make her not so. She says that Jane robs her, which I
don't believe is true, and that Sarah has a lover,--and why shouldn't
Sarah have a lover? But as for curing her grievances, it would be
the cruellest thing in the world. She lives upon her grievances.
Something has happened to the chimney-pot, and the landlord hasn't
sent a mason. She is revelling in her chimney-pot."

"Poor dear Miss Spooner," said Patience, getting up and leaving the
room as though it were her duty to look at once after her old friend
in the midst of these troubles.

Clarissa had not intended this. "She's asleep now," said Clarissa.
But Patience went all the same. It might be that Miss Spooner would
require to be watched in her slumbers. When Patience was gone Gregory
Newton got up from his seat and walked to the window. He stood
there for what seemed to be an endless number of seconds before he
returned, and Clarissa had time to determine that she would escape.
"I told Mary that I would go to her," she said, "you won't mind being
left alone for a few minutes, Mr. Newton."

"