When the youthful heart is _first_ excited, and hope is felt that kindred feeling has touched the soul in which it feels an interest, how exquisite the happiness of developement! Like the beautiful buds of early spring, the unfolding of each individual scale that binds the young leaves is in itself delightful, and we do not wish to lose a single hour of _progressive_ enjoyment, in impatience to behold the crown of summer foliage. Did you ever meet with an old book called "_Guadentio di Lucca?_"--It is a story in which, amongst some primitive race of people in South America, I think the lovers are made to declare their mutual sentiments by an interchange of buds, and, as inclinations advance, the full-blown flower. But to return. Russell felt that his way was retrograde, and therefore, making an effort, he bounded over rocks, shrubs, and rivulets, and, taking my sweet child by the hand, declared, in the spirit of Hector to Andromache, though with the difference between _is_ and _might be_, that _all_ relations, however fond, concentrate in the object of tender and devoted love. To hear a confession of this nature, for the first time, must necessarily produce confusion in the mind of so gentle a being as Charlotte, and she told her sister that she felt quite unable for a few minutes to collect herself. Courage was imparted at length, by the fear of conveying the opposite of what she intended to communicate by her silence; and, summoning resolution, she turned to our young friend, and, thanking him kindly for the preference which he had just expressed, added: "I have many blessings, and I am very young. It has never before occurred to me even to _think_, in my own case, of parting with such treasures as I possess; and though I shall always remember your visit to Glenalta as a period of _great_ pleasure, and _you_ as an agreeable member of our happy party, I can say no more." Russell urged the usual arguments. "Surely she did not mean to devote herself to a single life. She might still have the society of mother, sisters, brother. Marriage was the natural object of life: it was the happiest lot when 'heart met heart.'" "And _how_ can heart meet heart," replied Charlotte, "on a three weeks' acquaintance? _My_ heart would require a much longer time for disposing of itself, if I could disengage it from the ties that bind it here; and I cannot imagine how people should be either so vain, or so confiding as to fancy that the foundation of happiness, for perhaps a long life, can be laid in a short moment of time." Russell assured her that to the quick eye of a lover, moments were years in bringing people acquainted. "Ah then," said Charlotte, "why are so many married people unhappy?" "They are just as well off in the end," answered Russell, "as those who are single, and certainly, till they discover their mistakes, much happier."