"
He held the gate open until Cousin Bessie and Louis had passed out. I
was standing on the topmost step waiting to see them off, and Mr. Nyle,
looking at me to attract my attention, struck an attitude exactly like
that in which they had surprised Dr. Campbell, leaning just as
languidly upon the bars.
"How silver-sweet sound lovers tongues by night, Like softest music
to attending ears!"
He exclaimed, in such a ridiculously sentimental tone, that we all
laughed outright, and cousin Bessie pulling him forcibly away by the
coat-sleeve, looked over his shoulder at me and said consolingly:
"Never mind, Amey, he can't throw stones from a glass house, he did
this kind of thing many a time in his own day--you know you did," she
added, linking her arm within his, and turning her eyes upon his
beaming face with a dash of revived tenderness and old love. I caught
his answering glance, with its accompanying smile so full of a deep
meaning, and the tears came into my eyes. I bade them good-night and
went quietly into the house.
CHAPTER XIV.
Next day Arthur Campbell came to see me, as he had said, and in Cousin
Bessie's humble little parlor, by the cheerful glowing embers, asked
me to become his wife. I might have known it--perhaps I did know it,
in spite of my wilful perverseness in denying it to myself, but I had
not imagined it to be like this. There was no thrill or joy for me in
the sound of his earnest voice, no definite sensation of that
happiness which is said to attend this circumstance, no prospect of
golden pleasures in the near future, that would find us united in
these holy bonds.
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