"Well, I couldn't do my duty as a clergyman, any more than you could do

yours as a governess. You ought to have a little fellow-feeling there,

Mary."

"I never said you ought to be a clergyman. There are other sorts of

work. It seems to me very miserable not to resolve on some course and

act accordingly."

"So I could, if--" Fred broke off, and stood up, leaning against the

mantel-piece.

"If you were sure you should not have a fortune?"

"I did not say that. You want to quarrel with me. It is too bad of

you to be guided by what other people say about me."

"How can I want to quarrel with you? I should be quarrelling with all

my new books," said Mary, lifting the volume on the table. "However

naughty you may be to other people, you are good to me."

"Because I like you better than any one else. But I know you despise

me."

"Yes, I do--a little," said Mary, nodding, with a smile.

"You would admire a stupendous fellow, who would have wise opinions

about everything."

"Yes, I should." Mary was sewing swiftly, and seemed provokingly

mistress of the situation. When a conversation has taken a wrong turn

for us, we only get farther and farther into the swamp of awkwardness.

This was what Fred Vincy felt.

"I suppose a woman is never in love with any one she has always

known--ever since she can remember; as a man often is. It is always

some new fellow who strikes a girl."

"Let me see," said Mary, the corners of her mouth curling archly; "I

must go back on my experience. There is Juliet--she seems an example

of what you say. But then Ophelia had probably known Hamlet a long

while; and Brenda Troil--she had known Mordaunt Merton ever since they

were children; but then he seems to have been an estimable young man;

and Minna was still more deeply in love with Cleveland, who was a

stranger. Waverley was new to Flora MacIvor; but then she did not fall

in love with him. And there are Olivia and Sophia Primrose, and

Corinne--they may be said to have fallen in love with new men.

Altogether, my experience is rather mixed."

Mary looked up with some roguishness at Fred, and that look of hers was

very dear to him, though the eyes were nothing more than clear windows

where observation sat laughingly. He was certainly an affectionate

fellow, and as he had grown from boy to man, he had grown in love with

his old playmate, notwithstanding that share in the higher education of

the country which had exalted his views of rank and income.




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