were to lay them low.

"I wish, Jane, you would try and get up your spirits, love, and see and
be entertaining to poor Charles, as this is the last day he is to be
with you."

She looked quickly at her mother, "The I last, mamma?"

"I mean for a while, dear, until after his I return from the Continent."

She seemed relieved by this. "Oh no, not the last, Charles," she
said--"Yet I know not how it is--I know not; but sometimes, indeed, I
think it is--and if it were, if it were--"

A paleness more deadly spread over her face; and with a gaze of mute and
undying-devotion she clasped her hands, and repeated--"if it should be
the last--the last!"

"I did not think you were so foolish or so weak a girl, Jane," said
William, "as to be so cast down, merely because Charles is taking a skip
to the Continent to get a mouthful of fresh air, and back again. Why,
I know them that go to the Continent four times a year to transact
business a young fellow, by the way, that has been paying his addresses
to a lady for the last six or seven years. I wish you saw them part, as
I did--merely a hearty shake of the hand--'good by, Molly, take care of
yourself till I see you again;' and 'farewell, Simon, don't forget the
shawl;' and the whole thing's over, and no more about it."

There was evidently something in these words that jarred upon a spirit
of such natural tenderness as Jane's. While William was repeating them,