ind out whether Miss Wayne really is
engaged to him. Here I am at the very end of my paper. Take care of
yourself, my dear Abel, and remember the religion and the solid reading.

"Your affectionate mother,

"NANCY NEWT."

Abel read the letters, and stood looking at the floor, musingly. His
school days, then, were numbered; the stage was to be deepened and
widened--the scenery and the figures so wonderfully changed! He was to
step in a moment from school into the world. He was to lie down one night
a boy, and wake up a man the next morning.

The cloud of thoughts and fancies that filled his mind all drifted toward
one point--all floated below a summit upon which stood the only thing he
could discern clearly, and that was the figure of Hope Wayne. Just as he
thought he could reach her, was he to be torn away?

And who was Mr. Alfred Dinks?

CHAPTER X.

BEGINNING TO SKETCH.

The next morning when Gabriel declared that he was perfectly well and had
better return, nobody opposed his departure. Hope Wayne, indeed, ordered
the carriage so readily that the poor boy's heart sank. Yet Hope pitied
Gabriel sincerely. She wished he had not been injured, because then there
would have been nobody guilty of injuring him; and she was quite willing
he should go, because his presence reminded her too forcibly of what she
wanted to forget.

The poor boy drove dismally away, thinking what a dreadful thing it is to
be young.

After he had gone Hope Wayne sat upon the lawn reading. Suddenly a shadow
fell across the page, and looking up she saw Abel Newt standing beside
her. He had his cap in one hand and a port-folio in the other. The blood
rushed from Hope's cheek to her heart; then rushed back again. Abel saw
it.

Rising from the lawn and bowing gravely, she turned toward the house.

"Miss Wayne," said Abel, in a voice which was very musical and very
low--she stopped--"I hope you have not already convicted and sentenced
me."

He smiled a little as he spoke, not familiarly, not presumptuously,
but with an air which indicated his entire ability to justify himself.
Hope said:

"I have no wish to be unjust."

"May I then plead my own cause?"

"I must go into the house--I will call my grandfather, whom I suppose you
wish to see."

"I am here by his permission, and I hope you will not regard me as an
intruder."

"Certainly not, if he knows you are here;" and Hope lingered to hear if
he had any thing more to say.