stener to Fanny's gay badinage, laughing
merrily at the idea of Lucy's taking old women out to air and clothing
her children in party dresses. His opinion of Lucy, as she had said,
was that she was a pretty, but frivolous, plaything, and it showed
upon his face as he asked the question he did, watching Anna furtively
as Fanny replied:

"Oh, yes, he is certainly smitten, and I must say I never saw Lucy so
thoroughly in earnest. Why, she really seems to enjoy traveling all
over Christendom to find the hovels and huts, though she is mortally
afraid of the smallpox, and always carries with her a bit of chloride
of lime as a disinfecting agent. I am sure she ought to win the
parson. And so you know him, do you?"

"Yes; we were in college together, and I esteem him so highly that,
had I a sister, there is no man living to whom I would so readily give
her as to him."

He was looking now at Anna, whose face was very pale, and who pressed
a rose she held so tightly that the sharp thorns pierced her flesh,
and a drop of blood stained the whiteness of her hand.

"See, you have hurt yourself," Mr. Hastings said. "Come to the water
pitcher and wash the stain away."

She went with him mechanically, and let him hold her hand in his
while he wiped off the blood with his own handkerchief, treating her
with a tenderness for which he could hardly account himself. He pitied
her, he said, suspecting that she had repented of her rashness, and
because he pitied her he asked her to ride with him that day after the
fast bays, of which he had written to Arthur. Many admiring eyes were
cast after them as they drove away, and Mrs. Hetherton whispered
softly to Mrs. Meredith:

"A match in progress, I see. You have done well for your charming
niece."

And yet matrimony, as concerned himself, was very far from Thornton
Hastings' thoughts that afternoon, when, because he saw that it
pleased Anna to have him do so, he talked to her of Arthur, hoping in
his unselfish heart that what he said in his praise might influence
her to reconsider her decision and give him a different answer. This
was the second day of Thornton Hastings' acquaintance with Anna
Ruthven, but as the days went on, bringing the usual routine of life
at Newport, the drives, the rides, the pleasant piazza talks, and the
quiet moonlight rambles, when Anna was always his companion, Thornton
Hastings came to feel an unwillingness to surrender, even to Arthur
Leighton, the beautif