the other end of the field. Guy asked
if he could be of any use; Mr. Ross said no, and Mary begged Amy and
Charlotte to go up to her room, and change their wet shoes.

There, Amy would fain have stayed, flushed and agitated as those looks
made her; but Charlotte was in wild spirits, delighted at having been
caught in the rain, and obliged to wear shoes a mile too large, and
eager to go and share the fun in the drawing-room. There, in the
twilight, they found a mass of young ladies herded together, making a
confused sound of laughter, and giggling, while at the other end of the
room, Amy could just see Guy sitting alone in a dark corner.

Charlotte's tongue was soon the loudest in the medley, to which Amy did
not at first attend, till she heard Charlotte saying--

'Ah! you should hear Guy sing that.'

'What?' she whispered to Eveleen.

'"The Land of the Leal,"' was the answer.

'I wish he would sing it now,' said Ellen Harper.

'This darkness would be just the time for music,' said Eveleen; 'it is
quite a witching time.'

'Why don't you ask him?' said Ellen. 'Come, Charlotte, there's a good
girl, go and ask him.'

'Shall I?' said Charlotte, whispering and giggling with an affectation
of shyness.

'No, no, Charlotte,' said Laura.

'No! why not?' said Eveleen. 'Don't be afraid, Charlotte.'

'He is so grave,' said Charlotte.

Eveleen had been growing wilder and less guarded all day, and now,
partly liking to tease and surprise the others, and partly emboldened by
the darkness, she answered,--

'It will do him all manner of good. Here, Charlotte, I'll tell you how
to make him. Tell him Amy wants him to do it.'

'Ay! tell him so,' cried Ellen, and they laughed in a manner that
overpowered Amy with horror and shyness. She sprung to seize Charlotte,
and stop her; she could not speak, but Louisa Harper caught her arm, and
Laura's grave orders were drowned in a universal titter, and suppressed
exclamation,--'Go, Charlotte, go; we will never forgive you if you
don't!'

'Stop!' Amy struggled to cry, breaking from Louisa, and springing up in
a sort of agony. Guy, who had such a horror of singing anything deep in
pathos or religious feeling to mixed or unfit auditors, asked to do
so in her name! 'Stop! oh, Charlotte!' It was too late; Charlotte,
thoughtless with merriment, amused at vexing Laura, set up with
applause, and confident in Guy's good nature, had come to him, and was
saying,--'Oh, Guy! Amy wants you t