CHAPTER VII.

DOST thou feel
The solemn whispering influence of the scene
Oppressing thy young heart, that thou dost draw
More closely to my side?--F. HEMANS: _Wood Walk and Hymn_.

CAROLINE and Evelyn, as was natural, became great friends. They were not
kindred to each other in disposition; but they were thrown together, and
friendship thus forced upon both. Unsuspecting and sanguine, it was
natural to Evelyn to admire; and Caroline was, to her inexperience, a
brilliant and imposing novelty. Sometimes Miss Merton's worldliness of
thought shocked Evelyn; but then Caroline had a way with her as if she
were not in earnest,--as if she were merely indulging an inclination
towards irony; nor was she without a certain vein of sentiment that
persons a little hackneyed in the world and young ladies a little
disappointed that they are not wives instead of maids, easily acquire.
Trite as this vein of sentiment was, poor Evelyn thought it beautiful and
most feeling. Then, Caroline was clever, entertaining, cordial, with all
that superficial superiority that a girl of twenty-three who knows London
readily exercises over a country girl of seventeen. On the other hand,
Caroline was kind and affectionate towards her. The clergyman's daughter
felt that she could not be always superior, even in fashion, to the
wealthy heiress.

One evening, as Mrs. Leslie and Mrs. Merton sat under the veranda of the
cottage, without their hostess, who had gone alone into the village, and
the young ladies were confidentially conversing on the lawn, Mrs. Leslie