bout him to
you; but, don't you see, I laughed when we met Dick; and what can he
think of that?"

"He just thinks you were nervous, I suppose."

"O, do you suppose he does, Fanny? O, I _wish_ I could believe that! O,
I'm so horribly ashamed of myself! And here yesterday I was criticising
him for being unfeeling, and now I've been a thousand times worse than
he has ever been, or ever could be! O dear, dear, dear!"

"Kitty! hush!" exclaimed Mrs. Ellison; "you run on like a wild thing,
and you're driving me distracted, by not being like yourself."

"O, it's very well for _you_ to be so calm; but if you didn't know what
to do, you wouldn't."

"Yes, I would; I don't, and I am."

"But what shall I do?" And Kitty plucked away the hands which Fanny had
been holding and wrung them. "I'll tell you what I can do," she suddenly
added, while a gleam of relief dawned upon her face: "I can bear all his
disagreeable ways after this, as long as he stays, and not say anything
back. Yes, I'll put up with everything. I'll be as _meek_! He may
patronize me and snub me and put me in the wrong as much as he pleases.
And then he won't be _approaching_ my behavior. O Fanny!"

Upon this, Mrs. Ellison said that she was going to give her a good
scolding for her nonsense, and pulled her down and kissed her, and said
that she had not done anything, and was, nevertheless, consoled at her
resolve to expiate her offence by respecting thenceforward Mr. Arbuton's
foibles and prejudices.

It is not certain how far Kitty would have succeeded in her good
purposes: these things, so easily conceived, are not of such facile
execution; she passed a sleepless night of good resolutions and schemes
of reparation; but, fortunately for her, Mr. Arbuton's foibles and
prejudices seemed to have fallen into a strange abeyance. The change
that had come upon him that day remained; he was still Mr. Arbuton, but
with a difference. He could not undo his whole inherited and educated
being, and perhaps no chance could deeply affect it without destroying
the man. He continued hopelessly superior to Colonel and Mrs. Ellison;
but it is not easy to love a woman and not seek, at least before
marriage, to please those dear to her. Mr. Arbuton had contested his
passion at every advance; he had firmly set his face against the fancy
that, at the beginning, invested this girl with a charm; he had only
done the things afterwards that mere civilization required; he had
suffered