ed by this new zeal of his.
At the instance of the spinster, the Doctor undertook to lay before
Reuben the information conveyed in the letter of Maverick, and that
gentleman's disapproval of any association between the young people
looking to marriage. It was not an easy or an agreeable task for the
Doctor; and he went about it in a very halting manner.

"Your Aunt Eliza has observed, Reuben, that you have lately become more
pointed in your attentions to Adaly."

"I dare say, father; worries her, doesn't it?"

"We do not know how far these attentions may be serious, Reuben."

"Nor I, father."

The Doctor was shocked at this new evidence of his son's indifference to
any fixed rule of conduct.

"How long is it, father," continued Reuben, "since Aunt Eliza has
commenced her plottings against Adele?"

"Not plottings against her, I trust, Reuben."

"Yes, she has, father. She's badgering her in her quiet way
incessantly,--as far back as when she caught sight of her in that dance
at the Elderkins'. For my part, I think it was a charming thing to see."

"We have graver reasons for our anxiety in regard to your relations with
her, my son; and not the least of them is Mr. Maverick's entire
disapproval of any such attachment."

And thereupon the Doctor had proceeded to lay before Reuben (who now
showed a most lively interest) a full revelation of the facts announced
in Maverick's letter.

The son had a strong smack of the father's family pride, and the strange
news was bewildering to him; but in his present stage of distrust, he
felt a strong disposition to protest against all the respectable
conventionalities that hedged him in. A generous instinct in him, too,
as he thought of the poor girl under the ban of the townsfolk, craved
some chivalric expression; and whatever sentiment he may really have
entertained for her in past days took new force in view of the sudden
barriers that rose between him and the tender, graceful, confiding,
charming Adele, whose image had so long and (as he now thought) so
constantly dwelt in the dreamy mirage of his future. Under the spur of
these feelings, he presently gave over his excited walk up and down the
study, and, coming close to the Doctor, whispered, with a grave
earnestness that made the old gentleman recognize a man in his boy,--

"Father, I have doubted my own feelings about Adele: now I do not. I
love her; I love her madly. I shall protect her; if she will marry me,"
(and