y silence. He, who thrilled everybody, had
doubtless thrilled HER. I thought I now understood the words which had
dropped from him when he was alone in the drawing-room, "I'll do it
to-day." Alas! the most rigid propriety could hardly have failed to
discover that he was doing it now.

"Have you forgotten what we agreed on, Godfrey, when you spoke to me in
the country? We agreed that we were to be cousins, and nothing more."

"I break the agreement, Rachel, every time I see you."

"Then don't see me."

"Quite useless! I break the agreement every time I think of you. Oh,
Rachel! how kindly you told me, only the other day, that my place in
your estimation was a higher place than it had ever been yet! Am I mad
to build the hopes I do on those dear words? Am I mad to dream of some
future day when your heart may soften to me? Don't tell me so, if I
am! Leave me my delusion, dearest! I must have THAT to cherish, and to
comfort me, if I have nothing else!"

His voice trembled, and he put his white handkerchief to his eyes.
Exeter Hall again! Nothing wanting to complete the parallel but the
audience, the cheers, and the glass of water.

Even her obdurate nature was touched. I saw her lean a little nearer to
him. I heard a new tone of interest in her next words.

"Are you really sure, Godfrey, that you are so fond of me as that?"

"Sure! You know what I was, Rachel. Let me tell you what I am. I have
lost every interest in life, but my interest in you. A transformation
has come over me which I can't account for, myself. Would you believe
it? My charitable business is an unendurable nuisance to me; and when I
see a Ladies' Committee now, I wish myself at the uttermost ends of the
earth!"

If the annals of apostasy offer anything comparable to such a
declaration as that, I can only say that the case in point is
not producible from the stores of my reading. I thought of the
Mothers'-Small-Clothes. I thought of the Sunday-Sweetheart-Supervision.
I thought of the other Societies, too numerous to mention, all built
up on this man as on a tower of strength. I thought of the struggling
Female Boards, who, so to speak, drew the breath of their business-life
through the nostrils of Mr. Godfrey--of that same Mr. Godfrey who had
just reviled our good work as a "nuisance"--and just declared that he
wished he was at the uttermost ends of the earth when he found himself
in our company! My young female friends will feel encouraged to
p