"I must stop you, Fred," cried Laura, passionately. "We cannot go on like this." "Why?" he said calmly. "Because we are brother and sister. We have always been as one together. You have had no secrets from me. I have had none from you. I have always been so proud of my brother's love for me, but now all at once everything comes to an end. You withhold your confidence." "No; my confidence, perhaps, for the time being," he said gravely; "not my love from you. God forbid." "But you do, Fred." "No; it is more the other way on," he replied. "You have withheld your love from me, and checked any disposition I might have felt to confide in you." "Fred!" "Don't deny it," he said quietly. "Since I was called away so strangely, and kept away against my will--" "Against your will!" cried Laura, scornfully. "Hah!" he cried, "it is of no use to argue with you, my child. Poor old aunt has so thoroughly imbued you with her doctrines of suspicion that everything I say will be in vain." "Imbued me with her suspicions!" cried Laura, angrily. "That is it; because I am quite a girl still you treat me as if I were a child. Do you--oh, I cannot say it!--yes, I will; I am your sister, and it is my duty to try and save you from something which will cause you regret to the end of your days. Do you dare to deny that you have got into some wretched entanglement--something which has suddenly turned you half mad?" "No," he said quietly. "That is so." "Then how can you go on like this? You have broken poor Isabel's heart, estranged everybody's love from you, and are running headlong to ruin. Fred--brother, for all our sakes, stop before it is too late." He looked at her mournfully, took her hand and kissed it, and with a passionate burst of sobbing she flung her arms about his neck and clung there. "Then you do repent, Fred? You will go there no more. Listen, dear; I forgive you everything now, because you are going to be my true, brave, noble brother again, and after a time--some day--Isabel will forgive you too; for she does love you still, Fred, in spite of all. There--there," she cried, kissing him again and again, "it is all over now." Chester loosened her hands from his neck and shook his head sadly. "No, Laury," he said, "it is not all over now." "What!" she cried quickly. "You will not--you cannot go back now." "Yes," he said, "even if you do not forgive me, I must." "Fred!" "Look here, little one," he said wearily; "you have grown to think and act like a woman, and you complain that I do not confide in you. Well, I will be frank with you to some extent. Laura dear, I am not my own master. I cannot do as you wish." "Fred, you must." "Say that to some poor creature who is smitten with a terrible mental complaint; tell him he must be ill no longer, but cast off the ailment. What will he reply?" He paused for an answer, but his sister stood gazing at him without a word.