myself.  There was no doubt of this; and nothing was left for present consolation but sapient resolutions for the future.  Virtuous and fixed they looked in my silent chamber and in the silent hour of night.  Morning had yet to dawn, and they had yet to contend with the thousand incitements which our desires are ever setting up to battle with our better judgment.  I did not write to Mr. Fairman, but I rose from my seat much comforted, and softened my midnight pillow with the best intentions.

Fancy might have suggested to me, on the following morning, that the eyes of Miss Fairnan had been visited but little by sleep, and that her face was far more pallid than usual, if her parent had not remarked, with much anxiety, when she took her place amongst us, that she was looking most weary and unwell.  Like the sudden emanation that crimsons all the east, the beautiful and earliest blush of morning, came the driven blood into the maiden’s cheek, telling of discovery and shame.  Nothing she said in answer, but diligently pursued her occupation.  I could perceive that the fair hand trembled, and that the gentle bosom was disquieted. I could tell why downwards bent the head, and with what new emotions the artless spirit had become acquainted.  Instantly I saw the mischief which my rashness had occasioned, and felt how deeply had fallen the first accents of love into the poor heart of the secluded one.  What had I done by the short, indistinct, most inconsiderate avowal, and how was it possible now to avert its consequences?  Every tender and uneasy glance that Mr. Fairman cast upon his cherished daughter, passed like a sting to me, and roused the bitterest self-reproach.  I could have calmed his groundless fears, had I been bold enough to risk his righteous indignation.  The frankness and cordiality which had ever marked my intercourse with Miss Fairman, were from this hour suspended.  Could it be otherwise with one so innocent, so truthful, and so meek!  Anger she had none, but apprehension and conceptions strange, such as disturb the awakened soul of woman, ere the storm of passion comes to overcharge it.

I slunk from the apartment and the first meal of the day, like a man guilty of a heinous fault.  I pleaded illness, and did not rejoin my friends.  I knew not what to do, and I passed a day in long and feverish doubt.  Evening arrived.  My pupils were dismissed, and once more I sat in my own silent room lost in anxious meditation.  Suddenly an unusual knock at the door roused me, and brought me to my feet.  I requested the visitor to enter, and Mr. Fairman himself walked slowly in.  He was pale and care-worn and he looked, as I imagined, sternly upon me.  “All is known!” was my first thought, and my throat swelled with agitation.  I presented a chair to the incumbent; and when he sat down and turned his wan face upon me, I felt that my own cheek was no less blanched than his.  I awaited his rebuke in breathless suspense.