whether or not,--for there is a great deal to be said on both sides of
the question,--you can make up your mind to sacrifice your own wishes,
and marry Walter Lester. Ah!--gently, gently. Nell--" "Promise to be
quiet."

"I will--I will; but you began it."

As Ellinor now finished her task, and kissed her sister's forehead, she
sighed deeply.

"Happy Walter!" said Madeline.

"I was not sighing for Walter, but for you."

"For me?--impossible! I cannot imagine any part of my future life that
can cost you a sigh. Ah! that I were more worthy of my happiness."

"Well, then," said Ellinor, "I sighed for myself;--I sighed to think we
should so soon be parted, and that the continuance of your society would
then depend not on our mutual love, but the will of another."

"What, Ellinor, and can you suppose that Eugene,--my Eugene,--would not
welcome you as warmly as myself? Ah! you misjudge him; I know you have
not yet perceived how tender a heart lies beneath all that melancholy and
reserve."

"I feel, indeed," said Ellinor warmly, "as if it were impossible that one
whom you love should not be all that is good and noble; yet if this
reserve of his should increase, as is at least possible, with increasing
years; if our society should become again, as it once was, distasteful to