tion I should feel what he asked to be impossible. "I
respect you thoroughly, Mr. Spence, and I am much interested in your
work; but I do not think I should ever love you as you would wish. I
feel quite sure of it; but if you are disposed to let me think it over
instead of giving you at once an unfavorable reply, I am willing to do
so."

Both my aunts dined with us, it being Christmas day, and directly upon
her arrival Aunt Helen remarked upon my paleness. It was an unusually
silent meal for a Christmas gathering. My father, as I remembered later,
seemed absorbed and dull. Aunt Agnes had shown me by a glance that the
events of the previous day were not unknown to her. She sat glum and
statuesque; but I did not attempt either to brave or to mollify her
displeasure, for I knew that compared with the secret in my possession,
the wretched affair with Paul Barr would seem to her a mere trifle. I
wondered, however, what she would think of such a match. How surprised
she would be, and how disappointed probably in Mr. Spence!--for I had
little question that she regarded him as too much engrossed in his work
ever to think of marriage. Indeed, she had said as much to me when I
spoke of Miss Kingsley in that connection. Poor Miss Kingsley! it would
be a cruel, bitter blow to her. I believed her to be in love with Mr.
Spence, so far as it was possible for any woman to be interested in a
man who had not made her an offer; and with the pardonable sense of
triumph I experienced was mingled some pity. She was the first to detect
the infatuation I had awakened in him, but his subsequent reserve had
almost lulled her jealousy to sleep. I knew in advance what Aunt Helen
would think. She would regard my conduct as little short of madness, and
all sympathy between us would be at an end forever.

But it was my father's opinion on the subject that I most feared to
face. I could not doubt what his verdict would be. It was the ambition
of his later life to see me use well the fortune he had accumulated. By
the marriage I was contemplating I should disappoint these expectations,
for I could not suppose he would regard as a good use of the money a
disclaimer of the fortune he wished to leave me. It was really between
him and Mr. Spence that I must decide.

This was what presented itself to me clearly, as my father and I sat
together in the library after my aunts had gone. It was past midnight,
and yet neither of us had thought apparently of goi