her work, and ply her needle
as though her life depended on the haste with which she wrought? Thus
might she receive a foe; better treatment surely merited so good a friend?

"Miss Graham," said at length the resolute yet timid man, "do I judge
rightly? Your father has communicated to you our morning's conversation?"

"He has, sir," answered Margaret too softly for any but a lover's ear.

"Then, pardon me, dear lady," continued Mildred, gaining confidence, as he
was bound to do, "if I presume to add all that a simple and an honest man
can proffer to the woman he adores. I am too old--that is to say, I have
seen too much of life, perhaps, to be able to address you now in language
that is fitting. But, believe me, dear Miss Graham, I am sensible of your
charms, I esteem your character, I love you ardently. I am aware of my
presumption. I am bold to approach you as a suitor; but my happiness
depends upon your word and I beg you to pronounce it. Dismiss me, and I
will trouble you no longer. I will endeavour to forget you--to forget that
I beheld you--that I ever nourished a passion which has made life sweeter
to me than I believed it could become; but if, on the other hand"--

How strange it is, that we will still create troubles in a world that
already abounds with them! Here had Mildred lived in a perpetual fever for
months together, teazing and fretting himself with anxieties and doubts;
whilst, as a reasonable being, he ought to have been as cheerful and as
merry as a lark singing at the gate of heaven. In the midst of his oration,
the gentle Margaret resigned her work, and wept. I say no more. I will not
even add that she had been prepared to weep for months before--that she
had grown half fearful and half angry at the long delay--that she was
woman, and ambitious--that she had heard of Mildred's mine of wealth, and
longed to share it with him. Such secrets, gentle reader, might, if
revealed, attaint the lady's character. I therefore choose to keep them to
myself. It is very certain that Mildred was forthwith accepted, and that,
after a courtship of three months, he led to the altar a woman of whose
beauty and talents a monarch might justly have been proud. It is not to
the purpose of this narrative to describe the wedding guests and
garments--the sumptuous breakfast--the continental tour. It was a fair
scene to look at, that auspicious bridal morn. The lieutenant's unaffected
joy--the bridegroom's blissful pride--the