a friend as he was a man, and she had been in the world
a quarter of a century. We shall call him Edwin: that name will do as
well as another; indeed, better, for he might not like his own made
public. It need hardly be said that among the rest young Edwin loved,
and, like his namesake in the ballad, he never talked of love. This
might be stupid, but the stupidity which springs from true modesty
is not to be classed with the stupidity which springs from want of
brains, even when, as is quite likely, the consequences are to the
full as disastrous. Now, how is a young lady to understand or bring
things to a bearing in a case like this? The Rose could not go up
to Edwin and tell him she was not a goddess; neither could she say,
"Although I have five thousand pounds--and you know it, and I know
that you know it, and you know that I know that you know it--I am
quite ready to believe that you love me, and would love me if I hadn't
a farthing:" she could not say this, but she thought it, she worried
herself thinking over it, and, being a sensible girl with a humble
opinion of herself, she came to the conclusion that she had been
altogether mistaken--that Edwin did not care for her, at least not
as she cared for him, otherwise why should he not say so? "If," she
thought--"if I were in his place and he in mine, neither money nor
pride, nor anything else, would keep me silent." And the roses in
her face deepened in color as she thought of her own silly folly in
allowing her feelings to be drawn in, and she determined her folly
should cease from that hour; which determination had the effect of
bringing sharp, short speeches about Edwin's ears tinged with sarcasm
that were meant to convey to him the conviction that she did not care
a pin about him; and they answered the purpose admirably.

Love is a fickle game, which they
Whose stakes are deepest worst can play,

Edwin was at Cockhoolet that Christmas Day by the same fatality that
causes a moth to hover round a brilliant light; and when her sister
told Bessie that Edwin had come and was putting his horse into the
stable, she said, "Is Mr. Forrester here again? He must surely be dull
at home." But of course she received him with friendly civility.

Edwin employed the forenoon out of doors with the boys and two other
visitors. A Mr. and Mrs. Parker arriving unexpectedly, who were
anxious to see the castle, the afternoon was spent in going through
every part of it from dungeo