and Jason Lightner were no better,--nobody can say that they are
not good musicians. Old Squire Bee says there's not in all Kentucky
a better violinist than Ned, and Jason's flute is the sweetest
sound that ear ever listened to along these hills. If you don't care
anything for the players, Margaret, I'm sure you can't be indifferent
to their music; and I know they are anything but indifferent to
what you may think about it. They will play ten times as well if
you are there; and I'm sure, Margaret, I shall be the last"--here
the tone of the speaker's voice audibly faltered--"I shall be the
very last to think it sweet if you are not there."

But the words and faltering accents of the lover equally failed in
subduing the inflexible, perverse mood of the haughty maiden. Her
cold denial was repeated; and with looks that did not fail to speak
the disappointment of William Hinkley, he attended her back to the
village. Their progress was marked by coldness on the one hand, and
decided sadness on the other. The conversation was carried on in
monosyllables only, on the part of Margaret, while timidity and
a painful hesitancy marked the language of her attendant. But a
single passage may be remembered of all that was said between the
two, ere they separated at the door of the widow Cooper.

"Did you see the two strangers, Margaret, that passed through
Charlemont this afternoon?"

The cheeks of the maiden became instantly flushed, and the rapid
utterance of her reply in the affirmative, denoted an emotion which
the jealous instincts of the lover readily perceived. A cold chill,
on the instant, pervaded the veins of the youth; and that night
he did not hear, any more than Margaret Cooper, the music of his