first day of acknowledged love was a day altogether happy, and when she
prayed for him as she knelt beside her bed there was no feeling in her
mind that any fear need disturb her joy.

I will pass over the next three or four days very quickly, merely
saying that Patience did not find them so pleasant as that first day
after her engagement. There was something in her lover's manner--
something which at first she could not define--which by degrees seemed
to grate against her feelings.

He was sufficiently affectionate, that being a matter on which she did
not require much demonstration; but joined to his affection there
seemed to be--; she hardly liked to suggest to herself a harsh word,
but could it be possible that he was beginning to think that she was
not good enough for him? And then she asked herself the question--was
she good enough for him? If there were doubt about that, the match
should be broken off, though she tore her own heart out in the
struggle. The truth, however, was this--that he had begun that
teaching which he had already found to be so necessary. Now, had any
one essayed to teach Patience German or mathematics, with that young
lady's free consent, I believe that she would have been found a meek
scholar. But it was not probable that she would be meek when she found
a self-appointed tutor teaching her manners and conduct without her
consent.

So matters went on for four or five days, and on the evening of the
fifth day Captain Broughton and his aunt drank tea at the parsonage.
Nothing very especial occurred; but as the parson and Miss La Smyrger
insisted on playing backgammon with devoted perseverance during the
whole evening, Broughton had a good opportunity of saying a word or two