ery day, turned his horse's head up the lane, and stopped to
make a call. And the children (than whom there are no quicker observers
in matters of this kind) soon made up their minds that the object of
Mr. Malcolm's frequent and prolonged visits was sweet cousin Emily. And
they thought too, judging by the bright blush that came up in cousin
Emily's usually pale cheek when he was announced, and by the look of
interest with which she listened to his conversations with her uncle, or
replied to him when he addressed a remark to herself, that cousin Emily
was by no means indifferent to the young minister.

Having drawn their own conclusions from these premises, and watching
with much interest, as children always do the progress of a love affair,
they were surprised and disappointed when they found that as Mr.
Malcolm's attentions increased and became more pointed, cousin Emily
gradually withdrew from his society, and often declined altogether to
come into the sitting room when he was there. Yet they were certain she
liked him, for they often found her watching from her window his
retreating figure; and sometimes before she knew that she was observed,
she would be seen to wipe away the tears which were stealing unbidden
down her cheek.

At length, one day, the minister came, and as he walked up the steps of
the front piazza, those who caught sight of his face, saw that it was
pale and agitated, and that he looked as if important matters for him
were at stake. And he asked for Emily. There was no bright blush in her
cheek now as she descended the stairs; it was pale and cold as marble.
The interview was a long one, and when at length Mr. Malcolm mounted his
horse and rode slowly away, his face was as white as when he came, but
the look of suspense and expectation had passed away, and in its place
was that of settled and fixed despair. Emily went to her room, and to
her bed, which she did not leave for some days; when she again appeared
in the family she was calm and sweet as ever, but a shade more pensive.

And the young minister came no more. That was all.

He was sometimes seen in the distant road riding rapidly by, to or from
the Hemlocks, but though the horse from long custom, invariably turned
his head towards Mr. Wharton's lane, he was not permitted to follow his
inclinations, but was speedily hurried by.

And Emily grew paler and thinner day by day, and there was sometimes a
contraction about the brow which told of