made them very indignant; and her two brothers, John and William. A
guest aad two servants made up the known inhabitants of the house.

The guest was a young man who had arrived before the heads of the
house left, and had been laughingly charged by them to see that the
children did not work mischief. He was an old friend of the family; at
least as old 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