. If you rouse her or scold her,
she gives you a look, half wistful, half reckless, which sends you away
as queer and crazed as herself. What Louis will make of her, I cannot
tell. For my part, if I were a gentleman, I think I would not dare
undertake her."

"Never mind them. They were cut out for each other. Louis, strange to
say, likes her all the better for these freaks. He will manage her, if
any one can. She tries him, however. He has had a stormy courtship for
such a calm character; but you see it all ends in victory for him.
Caroline, I have sought you to ask an audience. Why are those bells
ringing?"

"For the repeal of your terrible law--the Orders you hate so much. You
are pleased, are you not?"

"Yesterday evening at this time I was packing some books for a
sea-voyage. They were the only possessions, except some clothes, seeds,
roots, and tools, which I felt free to take with me to Canada. I was
going to leave you."

"To leave me? To leave _me_?"

Her little fingers fastened on his arm; she spoke and looked affrighted.

"Not now--not now. Examine my face--yes, look at me well. Is the despair
of parting legible thereon?"

She looked into an illuminated countenance, whose characters were all
beaming, though the page itself was dusk. This face, potent in the
majesty of its traits, shed down on her hope, fondness, delight.

"Will the repeal do you good--_much_ good, _immediate_ good?" she
inquired.

"The repeal of the Orders in Council saves me. Now I shall not turn
bankrupt; now I shall not give up business; now I shall not leave
England; now I shall be no longer poor; now I can pay my debts; now all
the cloth I have in my warehouses will be taken off my hands, and
commissions given me for much more. This day lays for my fortunes a
broad, firm foundation, on which, for the first time in my life, I can
securely build."

Caroline devoured his words; she held his hand in hers; she drew a long
breath.

"You are saved? Your heavy difficulties are lifted?"

"They are lifted. I breathe. I can act."

"At last! Oh, Providence is kind! Thank Him, Robert."

"I do thank Providence."

"And I also, for your sake!" She looked up devoutly.

"Now I can take more workmen, give better wages, lay wiser and more
liberal plans, do some good, be less selfish. _Now_, Caroline, I can
have a house--a home which I can truly call mine--and _now_----"

He paused, for his deep voice was checked.

"And _now_," he resu