CHAPTER II.





IT was impossible for such passionate interviews, brief though they
were, to take place without leaving on the heart of a simple minded
girl like Jenny Lawson, a deep impression. New impulses were given
to her feelings, and a new direction to her thoughts. Nature told
her that Mark Clifford loved her; and nothing but his cold disavowal
of the fact could possibly have affected this belief. He had met
her, it was true, only three or four times; but their interviews
during these meetings had been of a character to leave no ordinary
effect behind. So long as her eyes, dimmed by overflowing tears,
could follow Mark's retiring form, she gazed eagerly after him; and
when he was at length hidden from her view, she sat down to pour out
her heart in passionate weeping.

Old Mrs. Lee, while she tenderly loved the sweet flower that had
grown up under her care, was not, in all things, a wise and discreet
woman; nor deeply versed in the workings of the human heart.

Rumor of Mark's wildness had found its way to the neighborhood of
Fairview, and made an unfavorable impression. Mrs. Lee firmly
believed that he was moving with swift feet in the way to
destruction, and rolling evil under his tongue as a sweet morsel.
When she heard of his arrival at his grandfather's, a fear came upon
her lest he should cast his eyes upon Jenny. No wonder that she met