cried he, "the pain which you inflict; you will, at least, not refuse me this one satisfaction . . . . Is it for Elinor . . . . and for Elinor only . . . . that you deny me, thus, all confidence?"

"Oh no, no, no!" cried she, hastily: "if Miss Joddrel were not in existence,—" she checked herself, and sighed more deeply; but, presently added, "Yet, surely, Miss Joddrel were cause sufficient!"

"You fill me," he cried, "with new alarm, new disturbance!—I supplicate you, nevertheless, to forego your present plan;—and to shew some little consideration to what I have to offer.—"

She interrupted him. "I must be unequivocally, Sir,—for both our sakes,—understood. You must call for no consideration from me! I can give you none! You must let me pursue the path that my affairs, that my own perceptions, that my necessities point out to me, without interference, and without expecting from me the smallest re-