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who told her, as a pleasant piece of information which would greatly interest her, that Captain Foy was desperately in love with General Peel's daughter, and added, "it is everywhere reported that they are engaged."

Poor Tiny! She felt as if all the brightness in her life had gone out, and that it would be impossible for her to know another happy moment. Her pride rebelled against the feeling that Captain Foy had only trifled with her affection, and her one comfort was in the thought that none of her home circle would ever know the deep and lasting impression which had been made upon her during her ever to be remembered visit to Windsor.

Turning to Wilfred, who came to claim her hand for the next waltz, Tiny was soon dancing with him, apparently the gayest and most lighthearted girl in the room; and so well had she controlled her emotion, that when Captain Foy came up and spoke to her, she never even changed color, but answered him with such perfect friendliness and ease, that he was unable to flatter himself (which gave that gallant soldier a momentary pang of disappointment) that Tiny had come out less heartwhole than he had from a flirtation for which he would most certainly have been called to account, but for Mr. Wroughton's deafness, and Mrs. Wroughton's absence from the rides and walks during which it had taken place-to say nothing of the numerous casual meetings in the

shrubberies and park, of which they had both been kept in complete ignorance.

But whatever appeared on the surface, poor Tiny's heart ached enough below, and it was many a long day before it ceased to pain her. At first she took refuge in the most violent barefaced flirtations with the numerous suitors who were only too eager to secure her notice, and she certainly seemed more than likely to fulfil the amiable prophecies of her lady friends.

It was in vain that Lady Harewood expostulated, in her feeble fretful way, at these unseemly proceedings, or that Tiny's sisters interfered. Tiny was determined to flirt, and Tiny did flirt, and once or twice she even passed the boundaries of flirtation and inflicted on honest hearts the pain she had herself experienced.

But Tiny's nature was really too good long to remain satisfied with this kind of life. Gradually her manner quieted down, and she seemed less inclined to take part in the different gayeties which were going on, but entered, with a feeling more akin to joy than anything she had felt since the Windsor visit, into her cousin Wilfred's intellectual pursuits and pleasures.

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Wilfred Lane's delight was unbounded. out by his delicate health from the hardier games and amusements of boys, books had always been the world he really lived in, and when he saw with daily increasing satisfaction that Tiny-was being

drawn towards him, he gladly provided anything she cared to study, or read aloud to her while she worked or drew, much to the amused amazement of her sisters, who were, however, greatly relieved by seeing Tiny's whims taking a quieter and far less conspicuous turn.

Wilfred's greatest delight was in art, and though he never had produced anything himself, his ap-. preciation and passionate love of painting had already gained him a considerable reputation as a critic, not only amongst his own immediate friends, but in the best literary circle. It therefore excited no surprise in Lady Harewood's mind when she saw Tiny studying Ruskin's "Modern Painters," preparatory to frequent expeditions with her cousin to the National Gallery-a place, be it remarked, strangely neglected by English people who crowd to the annual exhibitions of the Royal Academy, and profess to value good paintings, and sigh for Italy and the foreign places which contain them.

These were happy days for Wilfred, for he had an apt scholar, and his whole heart was in his work.

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CHAPTER IV.

"The fountains mingle with the river
And the rivers with the ocean,
The winds of heaven mix forever
With a sweet emotion;

Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine

In one another's being mingle--
Why not I with thine?”

PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY.

TINY, perhaps, may not have felt absolutely happy, and she certainly was not exaltée, but she did feel she was living in a purer, higher atmosphere, and the worldliness of her mother and the frivolity of her sisters' pursuits began to grate upon her accordingly. She was beginning, too, to have a stronger feeling for her cousin than she had at first thought at all possible; and when she compared Wilfred's generous, unselfish character with others, and felt the influence of the high tone of mind which he brought to bear upon everything with which he came in contact, she could not help feeling his superiority to most of the men she ever knew-Captain Foy included.

One afternoon late in the summer Wilfred and

Tiny were sitting in a sheltered nook in the Belgrave Square gardens, having borrowed the key (a not unusual habit) from the Eliots. Wilfred had been reading aloud some of Mrs. Browning's "Sonnets from the Portuguese," and when he came to xliii. he paused, for he did not think he could trust himself to read it to Tiny. It was his favorite sonnet, and exactly expressed his feeling for his cousin.

Tiny, however, was imperative, especially when she saw that the page was marked, and a date written on it which her cousin refused to explain. At last he began

"How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.
I love thee to the depth and breadth and height
My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight
For the ends of Being and ideal grace.
I love thee to the level of every day's
Most quiet need, by sun and candle light.

I love thee freely, as men strive for Right.

I love thee purely, as they turn from Praise.

I love thee with the passion put to use

In

my old griefs, and with my childhood's faith.
I love thee with a love I seemed to lose

With my dead Saints-I love thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my life !--and, if God choose,
I shall but love thee better after Death."

As Wilfred read these lines in a voice of subdued passion, the truth which had lately been dawning upon Tiny's mind came to her in its full

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