discouraged my presumption by
awarding me nothing. Be it so. Perhaps your prudence was for the best;
but, oh Gertrude, it has made me heartbroken."

"Willie!" exclaimed Gertrude, with excitement, "do you know how
strangely you are speaking?"

"Strangely?" responded Willie, in a half-offended tone. "Is it so
strange that I should love you? Have I not for years cherished the
remembrance of our past affection, and looked forward to our reunion as
my only hope of happiness? Has not this fond expectation inspired my
labours, and cheered my toils, and endeared to me my life, in spite of
its bereavements? And can you, in the very sight of these cold mounds,
beneath which lie buried all else that I held dear on earth, crush and
destroy without compassion this solitary but all-engrossing----"

"Willie," interrupted Gertrude, her calmness suddenly restored, and
speaking in a kind but serious tone, "is it honourable for you to
address me thus? Have you forgotten----"

"No, I have _not_ forgotten," exclaimed he vehemently. "I have not
forgotten that I have no right to distress or annoy you, and I will do
so no more. But oh, Gerty! my sister Gerty (since all hope of a nearer
tie is at an end), blame me not, and wonder not, if I fail at present to
perform a brother's part. I cannot stay in this neighbourhood. I cannot
be the patient witness of another's happiness. My services, my time, my
life, you may command, and in my far-distant home I will never cease to
pray that the husband you have chosen, whoever he be, may prove himself
worthy of my noble Gertrude, and love her one-half as well as I do!"

"Willie!" said Gertrude, "what madness is this? I am bound by no such
tie as you describe; but what shall I think of your treachery to
Isabel?"

"To Isabel!" cried Willie, starting up, as if seized with a new idea;
"and has that silly rumour reached _you_ too? and did you put faith in
the falsehood?"

"Falsehood!" exclaimed Gertrude, lifting her hitherto drooping eyelids
and casting upon him, through their wet lashes, a look of earnest
scrutiny.

Calmly returning a glance which he had neither avoided nor quailed
under, Willie responded unhesitatingly, and with a tone of astonishment
not unmingled with reproach, "Falsehood! Yes. With the knowledge you
have both of her and myself, could you doubt its being such for a
moment?"

"Oh, Willie!" cried Gertrude, "could I doubt the evidence of my own eyes
and ears? Had I trusted to less