“I trust, my dear niece,” she said, after they had retired from the breakfast table, where but little food had been taken, “that you will not exhibit toward Edward, on meeting him, any of the preconceived and unjust antipathy you entertain.  Let our feelings, at least, remain uncommitted for or against him.”

“Aunt Helen, it is useless to talk to me in this way,” Edith replied, with more than her usual warmth.  “The simple fact of an obligation to love puts a gulf between us.  My heart turns from him as from an enemy.  I will meet him with politeness; but it must be cold and formal.  To ask of me more, is to ask what I cannot give.  I only wish that he possessed the manliness I would have had if similarly situated.  Were this so, I would now be free by his act, not my own.”

Seeing that all she urged but made the feelings of Edith oppose themselves more strongly to the young man, Mrs. Ravensworth ceased to speak upon the subject, and the former was left to brood with a deeply disturbed heart over the approaching interview with one who had come to claim a hand that she resolutely determined not to yield.

About twelve o’clock, Mrs. Ravensworth came to Edith’s room and announced the arrival of Edward Hamden.  The maiden’s face became pale, and her lips quivered.

“If I could but be spared an interview,” she murmured.  “But that is more than I can ask.”

“How weak you are, Edith,” replied her aunt, in a tone of reproof.

“I will join you in the drawing-room in half an hour,” said Edith, speaking more calmly.

Mrs. Ravensworth retired, and left Edith again to her own thoughts.  She sat for nearly the whole of the time she had mentioned.  Then rising hurriedly, she made a few changes in her attire; after which she descended to the drawing-room with a step that was far from being firm.

So noiselessly did she enter the apartment where Hamden awaited her, that neither her aunt nor the young man perceived her presence for some moments, and she had time to examine his appearance, and to read the lineaments of his half-averted face.  While she stood thus observing him, her countenance suddenly flushed, and she bent forward with a look of surprise and eagerness.  At this moment the young man became aware that she had entered, and rising up quickly, advanced to meet her.

“Evelyn!” exclaimed Edith, striking her hands together, the moment he turned toward her.

“Edith! my own Edith!” returned the young man, as he grasped her hand, and ventured a warm kiss on her beautiful lips.  “Not Evelyn, but Hamden.  Our parents betrothed us while we were yet too young to give or withhold consent.  Both, as we grew older, felt this pledge as a heart-sickening constraint.  But we met as strangers, and I saw that you were all my soul could desire.  I sought your regard and won it.  No obligation but love now binds us.”

The young man then turned to Mrs. Ravensworth, and said—­