e, so anxious is he to draw his
Sword in my Behalf. Indeed so excellent an Opinion doth he entertain of
my Person and my Mind and my Conditions, that he would not be long in
finding one who should most justly contest the same. Heaven send that he
may hold to the Opinion and forget the Wish to make Proselytes!

"It would seem that some men were created but as a sort of Makeweight,
who, without active Hindrance, make it more difficult to row one's Boat
up the Stream of Life. Of such kind is my Cousin Eustace Fleming. His
most mistaken Admiration of me (for that in him is a Mistake which in
Another is but a most fitting and a most reverenced Creed) serves but to
make a Let and Hindrance where my satisfaction is concerned. I would
that he could more easily learn the Lesson I have been at such Pains to
mark out for him."

"It were vain," is the comment on the last passage, "to expect a
Recognition of sober worth in the Day of Love and Ambition. And
Mistress Twining, after the manner of her kind, pays but little Heed to
lasting Affection before the Time comes when it shall be of Use to Her."

The wedding day approaches. Mary Twining does not lose her independence,
though, woman like, she seems to enjoy losing herself in the love
lavished upon her. Here and there are passages which show that in the
warmth of her romance she thinks and judges and acts for herself, as she
did in her school days. Mary Twining will never merge her individuality
in that of another, however dear to her.

The entries grow briefer and more infrequent, as the month fixed upon
for the marriage draws near. It is to be in June,--two years from that
June when she rode down by coach, in the care of her father's friend.

"The day is fixed for the twenty-seventh of June," is the last entry but
two in her journal. "Two years ago, Fate gave my Life into his Hands.
At least, in giving it to him a second Time, Fate and I are at one."

The next entry is a month later. It is simply the statement,--

"May 24th. I have done my Cousin Eustace wrong." Then on--

"July 27th. And I am but twenty-one!"

And June comes and goes, and there is no word on her bridal day, no
breathings of her new happiness from her ready pen. Is the book closed?
Yes, but her biographer has a word to say.

"On the twenty-seventh of June, Mary A. Twining became the wife of her
Cousin Eustace Fleming. Their Betrothal was but a short one, but in the
eyes of her judicious Parents, there w