t worthy of you, Amelie," said he; "so much sisterly care is lost
on me!"

"Oh, say not that, brother," replied she, kissing him fondly in return.
"I would give my life to save you, O my brother!"

Amelie was greatly moved, and for a time unable to speak further; she
laid her head on his shoulder, and sobbed audibly. Her love gained the
victory where remonstrance and opposition would have lost it.

"You have won the day, Amelie!" said he; "I will not go to the village
except with you. You are the best and truest girl in all Christendom!
Why is there no other like you? If there were, this curse had not come
upon me, nor this trial upon you, Amelie! You are my good angel, and I
will try, oh, so faithfully try, to be guided by you! If you fail, you
will at least have done all and more than your duty towards your erring
brother."

"Le Brun!" cried he to the groom who had brought his horse, and to whom
he threw the whip which had made such havoc among the flowers, "lead
Black Caesar to the stable again! and hark you! when I bid you bring
him out in the early morning another time, lead him to me unbridled and
unsaddled, with only a halter on his head, that I may ride as a clown,
not as a gentleman!"

Le Brun stared at this speech, and finally regarded it as a capital
joke, or else, as he whispered to his fellow-grooms in the stable, he
believed his young master had gone mad.

"Pierre Philibert," continued Amelie, "is down at the salmon pool. Let
us join him, Le Gardeur, and bid him good morning once more at Tilly."

Amelie, overjoyed at her victory, tripped gaily by the side of
her brother, and presently two friendly hands, the hands of Pierre
Philibert, were extended to greet her and Le Gardeur.

The hand of Amelie was retained for a moment in that of Pierre
Philibert, sending the blood to her cheeks. There is a magnetic touch in
loving fingers which is never mistaken, though their contact be but for
a second of time: it anticipates the strong grasp of love which will
ere long embrace body and soul in adamantine chains of a union not to be
broken even by death.

If Pierre Philibert retained the hand of Amelie for one second longer
than mere friendship required of him, no one perceived it but God
and themselves. Pierre felt it like a revelation--the hand of Amelie
yielding timidly, but not unwillingly, to his manly grasp. He looked in
her face. Her eyes were averted, and she withdrew her hand quietly but
gently, as