"No, Risdon, not quite so bad as that yet," replied Woodburn, taking
all in good part.

"How much better, then? Come, Harry, I have taken stones enough out of
your path, and thrown them into that of your rival there, to earn a
candid answer to such a question."

"True, sir; but you ask more than I am permitted to know myself. I can
neither get accepted nor rejected. She, however has given me fresh
reason to admire her. She is no common girl, friend Risdon."

"There is not a finer or fairer in all the Green Mountains; but what
is that fresh reason you name?"

"The discovery that at heart she is warmly with us in the good cause."

"That is, you hope, and therefore believe so, eh?"

"I have a much better reason than that, sir, for my assertion. She
has, within this hour, told me so herself."

"Ah! Well, then, it is indeed so; for Sabrey Haviland never uttered
aught but perfect truth and sincerity in all her life. Why, God bless
her for her spunk and independence, living and visiting, as she mostly
has, from a child, in that circle of high-toned and bitter tories. And
it argues well for your suit, too, Woodburn, which till now I have
considered rather an unpromising one; for it tells me that she will
struggle hard to get free from the fetters which Peters and her father
have fastened on her, and by which, counting on her high sense of the
sacredness of all promises and contracts, they suppose have secured