conduct, though we cannot but admire the feeling which engendered
it. Her daughters were very young; though they had made such
positive advances as have been above described towards the
discretion of womanhood, they were of the age when they would
have been regarded as mere boys had they belonged to the other
sex. The assertion made by Clara Van Artevelde, that women 'grow
upon the sunny side of the wall,' is doubtless true; but young
ladies, gifted as they are with such advantages, may perhaps be
thought to require some counsel, some advice, in those first
tender years in which they so often have to make or mar their
fortunes.

Not that Mrs. Woodward gave them no advice; not but that she
advised them well and often--but she did so, perhaps, too much as
an equal, too little as a parent.

But, be that as it may--and I trust my readers will not be
inclined so early in our story to lean heavily on Mrs. Woodward,
whom I at once declare to be my own chief favourite in the tale--
but, be that as it may, it so occurred that Gertrude, before she
was nineteen, had listened to vows of love from Harry Norman,
which she neither accepted nor repudiated; and that Linda had,
before she was eighteen, perhaps unfortunately, taught herself to
think it probable that she might have to listen to vows of love
from Alaric Tudor.

There had been no concealment between the young men as to their
feelings. Norman had told his friend scores of times that it was
the first wish of his heart to marry Gertrude Woodward; and had
told him, moreover, what were his grounds for hope, and what his