ask his forgiveness. Oh, George, we
cannot be this way. Only think how sad it would make his father--and--'
There were tears on her lashes, and her lips were trembling piteously.
She put her hand to her throat and could not go on. God forgive me if I
was wrong,--and I know I was,--but I couldn't help it then,--I asked,
almost with a sneer, if she didn't dislike to slight her estimable
friend Mr. Herbert's kindness; and she turned away without a word, as if
regretting, from my unworthiness, the emotion she had shown.

"I was in very nearly as bad a state as Phil for a while. I told him
just how I had acted, and he was rather pleased than otherwise at my
cruelty. We tried hard to make ourselves believe that Grace had deserved
it, and to a certain extent succeeded.

"'She probably thought it was too high a price,' said Phil, 'when she
saw both of us going off offended, and she concluded not to give it.
But, then, it was just like her,' he added, in a kindlier spirit than
the natural interpretation of his words seemed to indicate.

"It was a month before either of us went to the house. The old captain
thought at first that we were going to the dogs, and, I think, kept up a
kind of watch over our movements. He came in one morning, after he had
concluded his suspicions were wrong, and made a sort of expiatory call.
He tried to tell us how he had judged us too harshly, but couldn't quite
bring himself to it, and, after a good many half-uttered remarks that
did honor to the old gentleman's heart, if they didn't prove him a cool
hand in such matters, he left us with an unspoken blessing and some
homely, sound advice to do as we liked, so long as we were manly and
honest.

"Within a week he was stricken with apoplexy on receiving news of some
serious losses, and was taken home without speaking. He died the next
morning just at sunrise, and Grace and Phil mingled their tears at his
bedside. He tried in vain to speak to them, and the pleased light in his
eyes as they took each other's hands and laid them, joined together, in
his, was the only sign he gave of having known there had been a
difference between them.

"Poor Grace! she was very miserable and lonely after that. Phil could
never bear to be with her after he had spoken. Her true kindness and
gentle, loving pity were misery to him. He made a noble effort to stay
by and watch over her, but he was hardly fit to take care of himself.
She never knew how small a share of wh