sustain the light of your innocent eyes if I had ever been guilty of
aught dishonorable or criminal. But even the follies and mistakes of
a young man's early career are not fit themes for your ears. And I
was no wiser, no more wary, than other youths of the same age; was
apt to believe that fair which was only specious, and that I might
play, uninjured, with edged tools. Nor had I seen you then, my
treasure--my snow-drop of purity! Mabel! do you know how solemn a
thing it is to be loved and trusted by a man, as I love and confide
in you? It terrifies me when I think of the absoluteness of my
dependence upon your fidelity--of how rich I am in having you--how
poor, wretched, and miserable I should be without you. I shall not
draw a free breath until you are mine beyond the chance of recall."

"Nobody else wants me!" breathed Mabel in his ear, nestling within
the arm that enfolded and held her tightly in the corner of the
piazza shaded by the creeper. "The danger of losing me is not
imminent to-night, at all events," she resumed, presently, with a
touch of the sportiveness that lent her manner an airy charm in
lighter talk than that which had engrossed her for the past hour.

The evening was warm and still to sultriness, and the moonlight,
filtered into pensive pallor through a low-lying haze, yet sufficed
to show how confidingly Imogene leaned upon her attendant in
sauntering dowa the long main alley of the garden. Rosa was at the
piano in the parlor, singing to the enamored Alfred. Mrs. Sutton had
withdrawn to her own room to ruminate upon the astounding disclosure
of her nephew's engagement, while Winston bent over his study-table
busy with the interrupted letter his aunt had seen in his portfolio.

"There is no one here who has the leisure or the disposition to