'Ah, well! I might have guessed as much from your bright face to-day. Nellie, how fond you are of that man.'

She remained silent, but looked flushed

and angry.

'Helen, dear,' he continued, tell me that it is not so, for I cannot endure to think that you are wasting the treasure of your affection upon a man whom I know to be-' and he stopped hesitatingly.

"To be what? Pray go on; only remember,' she added, with all a woman's inconsistency of purpose, that I shall neither listen, or reply to anything you may think proper to say against Captain Thornleigh.'

'I was not going to say anything against him,' said poor Edward, humbly, at least nothing that you would consider as against him.'

'No, you would only have said that he is wild, profligate, and heartless, and that I am a fool to trust him.'

'I do not deny your accusation; but, re

member, that it is by you the words have been spoken, while I,--but no, I am only too thankful to be spared the pain of uttering disagreeable truths.'

The last words were scarcely audible, and then, not daring to look into her grieved or angry eyes, he bent his own upon the ground, and with wandering, nervous fingers plucked the grass that grew there.

'Eddy,' said Helen, after a pause (during which a glance at his sad face had a little softened her feelings towards her Mentor), 'Eddy, forgive me, I did not mean to vex you. But tell me,-oh, do tell me,-—what you meant when you said that I-that I-loved Captain Thornleigh;' and the crimson tide rushed to her cheek and brow.

Edward's thoughts meanwhile had wandered from the subject in which she evidently took so deep an interest; and thus the exordium to his reply was singularly ill-timed and unacceptable.

'Helen,' he began in stammering accents,

'you do not know how dear you are to

me.'

'Oh! don't talk of that,' interrupted the girl, impatiently; don't talk nonsense.'

6

Well, I won't,' said the poor obedient fellow, for she was his Queen, and he, loving her without hope of reward, was as the most lowly of humble servants at her feet; 'I will say nothing of myself, but you should know, indeed you should, that every one is talking of you.'

The truth was out now; and the woman's wrath blazed forth.

Every one she cried, and who—if I may be permitted to ask-is "every one?" Who has presumed to talk of Captain Thornleigh's attentions and of my feelings?'

She was very angry, so angry, that it may be doubted whether some long-rankling feeling were not at work within her, aiding by its stingings the indignation called up by Edward's words. Her cousin noticed the signs of the gathering tempest, and stood

prepared, with what courage he could assume, to bear its brunt.

'Nellie,' he said gently, 'your father's profession is also mine; and, therefore, you cannot accuse me of an intention to disparage either the calling or those who exercise it. But young as you may in every respect deem me, I have not now to learn in what light men like Thornleigh view the pretty daughters of a country surgeon. A fair field for sport you are, dear Nellie. Sport to them, but a fearful death indeed to you.'

'Death!' exclaimed the girl, with a laugh. 'Look at me; do I seem likely to die, either of love or of a broken heart?'

'I do not speak of that, God forbid I should. But there is such a thing as a blasted name, and such a tragedy as a murdered reputation. There are women who look on at such catastrophes with a strange and morbid pleasure, forgetting that in the cold element of what is called "society"

there is many a sinking being who would, perchance, gladly catch at a straw to save herself from ruin; but who looks in vain for a kindly hand extended for her rescue.'

'And instead, they push her back into the current,' said Helen, with increasing anger. 'But you have not yet told me by whom and of what I am accused; you have not divulged the names of those whose hands, far from rescuing, are already filled with stones to cast at me.'

Edward's answer was given frankly, and at once, for he was rejoiced to find that she was true woman still, and shrank instinctively from public scandal.

'Who are they, and what do they insinuate? Well, you shall know the truth. They say that you meet Thornleigh alone, and at undue hours; and I say, dear Helen, that this is only too true, and that your danger is very great.'

'And so, my good, respectable cousin, you have been playing the worthy part of a spy