ell me. I received my information from our
teacher, Mr. Miller."

"Luce! Mr. Miller! What do you mean?" asked Julia, her eyes lessening to
their usual size, and the color again coming to her cheeks and lips. This
sudden change in her sister's appearance puzzled Fanny; but she proceeded
to relate what she had just heard from Mr. Miller. Julia was so much
relieved to find her fears unfounded, and her darling secret safe, that
she burst into a loud laugh, which she continued for some time. During
this fit of laughter, she was determining whether it were best to confess
the whole and seem sorry for it, or to strenuously deny it. Finally, she
decided on the former, but resolved not to give the right reason for her
conduct; so she said, with an air of great penitence: "Yes, Fanny, I am
guilty, and I am glad you know it, too. I have been on the point of
acknowledging it to you many times, but shame kept me silent."

"How could you do it, and what did you do it for?" asked Fanny.

Julia replied, "Truth compels me to say that I feared your influence over
Mr. Wilmot. I knew how much he admired amiability in females, and I wished
to make him think you were no more amiable than other people."

"And yet you say you never cared for his love," continued Fanny.

Miss Julia was getting cornered; but her evil genius did not forsake her,
and she answered, "True, I did not care much for him; but I felt flattered
with his attentions and I ardently desired to have one person prefer me to
you. I know it was wicked in me to do what I did, but you will forgive me,
will you not? And I will promise never again to act so deceitfully toward
you."

Always sincere in what she said herself, Fanny could not think her sister
otherwise; so her hand was extended in token of forgiveness. Julia took
it, and raising it to her lips, kept it there for an instant, in order to
conceal the treacherous smile of exultation which played round her mouth.
"I shall yet triumph," thought she, and, in the exuberance of her joy, she
kissed again the soft hand which she held in her grasp. Could Fanny have
looked into the heart of her sister, and beheld all its dark designs, she
would have fled from her presence as from a poisonous serpent. But, though
she was deceived, there was one, the All-seeing One, whose eye was ever
upon the sinful girl; and though for a while she seemed to prosper, the
same mighty Power so ordered it, that after a time, she who had sown the
tem