uessed as much," said she. "Well, she is
young and beautiful and rich, and it is your duty to obey your father."

"But I can't."

"Oh yes, you can, if you try."

"But I can't try."

"Why not?"

"Can't you guess?"

"No."

"Well, then, I love another girl. As opposite to her as light is to
darkness."

Mary blushed and looked down. "Complimentary to Julia," she said. "I pity
her opposite, for Julia is a fine, high-minded girl."

"Ah, Mary, you are too clever for me; of course I mean the opposite in
appearance."

"As ugly as she is pretty?"

"No; but she is a dark girl, and I don't like dark girls. It was a dark
girl that deceived me so heartlessly years ago."

"Ah!"

"And made me hate the whole sex."

"Or only the brunettes?"

"The whole lot."

"Cousin Walter, I thank you in the name of that small company."

"Until I saw you, and you converted me in one day."

"Only to the blondes?"

"Only to one of them. My sweet Mary, the situation is serious. You, whose
eye nothing escapes--you must have seen long ago how I love you."

"Never mind what I have seen, Walter," said Mary, whose bosom was
beginning to heave.

"Very well," said Walter; "then I will tell you as if you didn't know it.
I admired you at first sight; every time I was with you I admired you,
and loved you more and more. It is my heaven to see you and to hear you
speak. Whether you are grave or gay, saucy or tender, it is all one
charm, one witchcraft. I want you for my wife, and my child, and my
friend. Mary, my love, my darling, how could I marry any woman but you?
and you, could you marry any man but me, to break the heart that beats
only for you?"

This and the voice of love, now ardent, now broken with emotion, were
more than sweet, saucy Mary could trifle with; her head drooped slowly
upon his shoulder, and her arm went round his neck, and the tremor of her
yielding frame and the tears of tenderness that flowed slowly from her
fair eyes told Walter Clifford without a word that she was won.

He had the sense not to ask her for words. What words could be so
eloquent as this? He just held her to his manly bosom, and trembled with
love and joy and triumph.

She knew, too, that she had replied, and treated her own attitude like a
sentence in rather a droll way. "But _for all that_," said she, "I don't
mean to be a wicked girl if I can help. This is an age of wicked young
ladies. I soon found that out in the newspapers; that and sci