a very charming person; and Eugenia
was especially smitten." Mr. Brand stood staring, and he pursued,
"Affection, you know, opens one's eyes, and we noticed something.
Charlotte is not happy! Charlotte is in love." And Felix, drawing
nearer, laid his hand again upon his companion's arm.

There was something akin to an acknowledgment of fascination in the way
Mr. Brand looked at him; but the young clergyman retained as yet quite
enough self-possession to be able to say, with a good deal of solemnity,
"She is not in love with you."

Felix gave a light laugh, and rejoined with the alacrity of a maritime
adventurer who feels a puff of wind in his sail. "Ah, no; if she were in
love with me I should know it! I am not so blind as you."

"As I?"

"My dear sir, you are stone blind. Poor Charlotte is dead in love with
you!"

Mr. Brand said nothing for a moment; he breathed a little heavily. "Is
that what you wanted to say to me?" he asked.

"I have wanted to say it these three weeks. Because of late she has been
worse. I told you," added Felix, "it was very delicate."

"Well, sir"--Mr. Brand began; "well, sir"--

"I was sure you did n't know it," Felix continued. "But don't you
see--as soon as I mention it--how everything is explained?" Mr. Brand
answered nothing; he looked for a chair and softly sat down. Felix could
see that he was blushing; he had looked straight at his host hitherto,
but now he looked away. The foremost effect of what he had heard had
been a sort of irritation of his modesty. "Of course," said Felix, "I
suggest nothing; it would be very presumptuous in me to advise you. But
I think there is no doubt about the fact."

Mr. Brand looked hard at the floor for some moments; he was oppressed
with a mixture of sensations. Felix, standing there, was very sure
that one of them was profound surprise. The innocent young man had been
completely unsuspicious of poor Charlotte's hidden flame. This gave
Felix great hope; he was sure that Mr. Brand would be flattered. Felix
thought him very transparent, and indeed he was so; he could neither
simulate nor dissimulate. "I scarcely know what to make of this," he
said at last, without looking up; and Felix was struck with the fact
that he offered no protest or contradiction. Evidently Felix had kindled
a train of memories--a retrospective illumination. It was making, to
Mr. Brand's astonished eyes, a very pretty blaze; his second emotion had
been a gratification of va