“My dear boy,” said the old man, affectionately, as he laid his hand on the other's arm, “if you don't know where you are going, take my word for it there is no such great necessity to go.” “Yes, but there is,” replied he, quickly; “at least Miss Barrington thinks so, and at the time we spoke together she made me believe she was in the right.” “And are you of the same opinion _now?_” asked Peter, with a humorous drollery in his eye. “I am,--that is, I was a few moments back. I mean, that whenever I recall the words she spoke to me, I feel their full conviction.” “Come, now, sit down here beside me! It can scarcely be anything I may not be a party to. Just let me hear the case like a judge in chamber”--and he smiled at an illustration that recalled his favorite passion, “I won't pretend to say my sister has not a wiser head--as I well know she has a far better heart--than myself, but now and then she lets a prejudice or a caprice or even a mere apprehension run away with her, and it's just possible it is some whim of this kind is now uppermost.” Conyers only shook his head dissentingly, and said nothing. “Maybe I guess it,--I suspect that I guess it,” said Peter, with a sly drollery about his mouth. “My sister has a notion that a young man and a young woman ought no more to be in propinquity than saltpetre and charcoal. She has been giving me a lecture on my blindness, and asking if I can't see this, that, and the other; but, besides being the least observant of mankind, I'm one of the most hopeful as regards whatever I wish to be. Now we have all of us gone on so pleasantly together, with such a thorough good understanding--such loyalty, as the French would call it--that I can't, for the life of me, detect any ground for mistrust or dread. Have n't I hit the blot, Conyers--eh?” cried he, as the young fellow grew redder and redder, till his face became crimson. “I assured Miss Barrington,” began he, in a faltering, broken voice, “that I set too much store on the generous confidence you extended to me to abuse it; that, received as I was, like one of your own blood and kindred, I never could forget the frank trustfulness with which you discussed everything before me, and made me, so to say, 'One of you.' The moment, however, that my intimacy suggested a sense of constraint, I felt the whole charm of my privilege would have departed, and it is for this reason I am going!” The last word was closed with a deep sigh, and he turned away his head as he concluded.