h! your German, and dancing, and music, do not agree with thought.'

'Poor music!' said Laura, smiling. 'But I am ready for a lecture; I have
been feeling more like a butterfly than I like.'

'I know you think me unjust about music, and I freely confess that I
cannot estimate the pleasure it affords, but I doubt whether it is a
safe pleasure. It forms common ground for persons who would otherwise
have little in common, and leads to intimacies which occasion results
never looked for.'

'Yes,' said Laura, receiving it as a general maxim.

'Laura, you complain of feeling like a butterfly. Is not that a sign
that you were made for better things?'

'But what can I do? I try to read early and at night, but I can't
prevent the fun and gaiety; and, indeed, I don't think I would. It is
innocent, and we never had such a pleasant summer. Charlie is so--so
much more equable, and mamma is more easy about him, and I can't help
thinking it does them all good, though I do feel idle.'

'It is innocent, it is right for a little while,' said Philip; 'but your
dissatisfaction proves that you are superior to such things. Laura, what
I fear is, that this summer holiday may entangle you, and so fix your
fate as to render your life no holiday. O Laura take care; know what you
are doing!'

'What am I doing?' asked Laura, with an alarmed look of ingenuous
surprise.

Never had it been so hard to maintain his composure as now, when her
simplicity forced him to come to plainer terms. 'I must speak,' he
continued, 'because no one else will. Have you reflected whither this
may tend? This music, this versifying, this admitting a stranger so
unreservedly into your pursuits?'

She understood now, and hung her head. He would have given worlds to
judge of the face hidden by her bonnet; but as she did not reply,
he spoke on, his agitation becoming so strong, that the struggle was
perceptible in the forced calmness of his tone. 'I would not say a word
if he were worthy, but Laura--Laura, I have seen Locksley Hall acted
once; do not let me see it again in a way which--which would give me
infinitely more pain.'

The faltering of his voice, so resolutely subdued, touched, her
extremely, and a thrill of exquisite pleasure glanced through her, on
hearing confirmed what she had long felt, that she had taken Margaret's
place--nay, as she now learnt, that she was even more precious to him.
She only thought of reassuring him.

'No, you need never fear