"Ah! I see already," he exclaimed: "you too have learned the lesson. And
is it thus--and we are to be happy no longer!"

"Ralph!"--she endeavored to speak, but could proceed no further, and her
hand was again, silently and without objection, taken into the grasp of
his. The youth, after a brief pause, resumed, in a tone, which though it
had lost much of its impetuousness, was yet full of stern resolution.

"Hear me, Edith--but a word--a single word. I love you, believe me, dear
Edith, I love you."

The effect of this declaration was scarcely such as the youth desired.
She had been so much accustomed to his warm admiration, indicated
frequently in phrases such as these, that it had the effect of restoring
to her much of her self-possession, of which the nature of the previous
dialogue had a little deprived her; and, in the most natural manner in
the world, she replied--perhaps too, we may add, with much of the
artlessness of art--

"Why, to be sure you do, Cousin Ralph--it would be something strange
indeed if you did not. I believe you love me, as I am sure you can never
doubt how much you are beloved by me!"

"_Cousin_ Ralph--_Cousin_ Ralph!" exclaimed the youth with something of
his former impetuosity, emphasizing ironically as he spoke the
unfortunate family epithet--"Ah, Edith, you _will not_ understand
me--nor indeed, an hour ago, should I altogether have understood myself.
Suddenly, dear Edith, however, as I read certain passages of that book,
the thought darted through my brain like lightning, and I saw into my