n Lavinia!--I know it is!--I never meant--oh! I am so
unhappy!"

And Redbud ended by bursting into a flood of tears, which caused the
impulsive and sympathetic Fanny, whose lips had for some moments been
twitching nervously, to do the same.

"Don't cry, Fanny--please don't cry!" said Redbud.

"I'm not crying!" said Miss Fanny, shedding floods of tears--"I'm not
sorry--I'm mad with Miss Lavinia for making _you_ cry; I hate her!"

"Oh!" sobbed Redbud, "that is very wrong."

"I don't care."

"She's my cousin."

"No matter! She had no business coming here and making you unhappy."

With which Miss Fanny sniffed, if that very inelegant word may be
applied to any action performed by so elegant a young lady.

"Yes! she had no business--the old cat!" continued the impulsive
Fanny, "and I feel as if I could scratch her eyes out!--to make you
cry!"

"But I won't any more," said Redbud, beginning afresh.

"And I will stop, too," said Fanny, becoming hysterical.

After which solemn determination to be calm, and not display any
further emotion on any account, the two young ladies, sinking into
each other's arms, cried until their white handkerchiefs were
completely wetted by their tears.

They had just managed to suppress their emotion somewhat--preparatory
to commencing again, doubtless--when the door of the apartment opened,
and a servant girl announced to Miss Redbud that a gentleman had
come to see her, and was waiting for that purpose at the foot of the
stairs.

"Oh! I can't see him," said Redbud, threatening a new shower.

"You shall!" said Fanny, laughing through her tears.

"Oh, no! no!" said Redbud.

"What shall I tell 'um, Miss," said the servant?

"Oh, I can't go down--tell Verty that--"

"She'll be down in a minute," finished Fanny.

"No, no, I must not!"

"You shall!"

"Fanny--!"

"Come, no nonsense, Reddy! there! I hear his voice--oh, me! my
goodness gracious!"

These sudden and apparently remarkable exclamations may probably
appear mysterious and without reason to the respected readers who do
us the honor to peruse our history; but they were in reality not at
all extraordinary under the circumstances, and were, indeed, just what
might have been expected, on the generally accepted theories of cause
and effect.

In a single word, then, the lively Miss Fanny had uttered the emphatic
words, "Oh, me!--my goodness gracious!" because she had heard upon the
staircase the noise of a masculine