"It influences some men," answered Maude, "and though you may like

me--"

"Like you, Maude Remington!" he exclaimed; "like is a feeble word. I

worship you, I love the very air you breathe, and you must be mine.

Will you, Maude?"

J.C. had never before been so much in earnest, for never before had

he met with the least indecision, and he continued pleading his

cause so vehemently that Louis, who was wholly unprepared for so

stormy a wooing, stopped his ears and whispered to his sister, "Tell

him Yes, before he drives me crazy!"

But Maude felt that she must have time for sober, serious

reflection; J.C. was not indifferent to her, and the thought was

very soothing that she who had never aspired to the honor had been

chosen from all others to be his wife. He was handsome, agreeable,

kind-hearted, and, as she believed, sincere in his love for her. And

still there was something lacking. She could not well tell what,

unless, indeed, she would have him more like James De Vere.

"Will you answer me?" J.C. said, after there had been a moment's

silence, and in his deep black eyes there was a truthful, earnest

look wholly unlike the wicked, treacherous expression usually hidden

there.

"Wait a while," answered Maude, coming to his side and laying her

hand upon his shoulder. "Wait a few days, and I most know I shall

tell you Yes. I like you, Mr. De Vere, and if I hesitate it is

because--because--I really don't know what, but something keeps

telling me that our engagement may be broken, and if so, it had

better not be made."

There was another storm of words, and then, as Maude still seemed

firm in her resolution to do nothing hastily, J.C. took his leave.

As the door closed after him, Louis heaved a deep sigh of relief,

and, turning to his sister, said: "I never heard anything like it; I

wonder if James would act like that!"

"Louis," said Maude, but ere Louis could reply she had changed her

mind, and determined not to tell him that James De Vere alone stood

between her and the decision J.C. pleaded for so earnestly. So she

said: "Shall I marry J.C. De Vere?"

"Certainly, if you love him," answered Louis. "He will take you to

Rochester away from this lonesome house. I shall live with you more

than half the time, and--"

Here Louis was interrupted by the sound of wheels. Mrs. Kelsey and

Nellie had returned from the Lake, and bidding her brother say

nothing of what he had heard, Maude went down to meet them. Nellie

was in the worst of humors. "Her head was aching horridly--she had

spent an awful day--and J.C. was wise in staying at home."




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