olonel Lucas. They both seemed like brothers to me. As time went on,
Frank, the elder, began to spend all his vacations with us; and when he
left Oxford, and ought to have commenced his studies for the bar, he
continually put off the time of going up to London, where he was to
enter the office of a lawyer, and stayed on from week to week at home,
to teach me German, as he said. I knew he was rich, and that in three
years he would come into the possession of a large fortune; but I knew
also how bad it was for a young man to have no profession; and when I
saw my father seemed indifferent on the subject, I used to urge Frank
the more not to waste his time. But he generally only laughed, though at
times he would seem vexed at my earnestness, and would ask me why I
should wish him to do what he did not want to do; and then,--and
then,--this was one evening after we had been on the boat together all
the afternoon, and were walking up home,--then, Madame, he told me he
loved me, that he would go to London, study law, or do anything I said,
if I would marry him. Oh, Madame, this was dreadful to me! I was stunned
and bewildered. I had never fancied such a thing possible; the very idea
was unnatural. I had thought of Frank as a boy always; now, in a moment,
he was converted into a man, full of the determination of a selfish
purpose. I could not answer him composedly, and entreated him to leave
me. He misinterpreted my dismay, and went at once to my father. When I
came in, that evening, having somewhat regained my composure, though
with a sick feeling of dread and bewilderment in my heart, my father met
me with unusual kindness, kissed me as he had not done for years, and
led me towards Frank, who was standing near my mother. She had been
crying, I saw, and her face wore a strange expression of anxiety and
nervous joy as she looked at me. I turned away from Frank, and threw
myself down on the floor by my mother.

"'"Thank Heaven, Lina!" I heard her whisper; "God bless you, my child!
you have saved me years of bitterness."

"'I exclaimed,--"I cannot marry Frank,--I don't love him, mother,--don't
try to make me!"

"'Ah, Madame, it was dreadful! I don't know how I bore it. My father
stormed, and my mother cried, and poured forth such entreaties and
persuasions,--telling me I mistook my heart, and that I should learn to
love Frank, and about duty as a daughter to my father, and, oh, I don't
know what beside!--and Frank stood by, sil