As well as he was capable of doing he loved Anna Burroughs, and the fact that she was pledged to another added fuel to the flame. “What new freak has taken my fickle goddess?” he asked, looking down upon her with a mocking sneer about his mouth as she told him why she could not go with him. He knew she was in earnest at last, and, dropping his jesting tone, he made her sit down beside him, while he used every possible argument to dissuade her from her purpose, working first upon her pride, flattering her vanity, portraying the happiness of a tour through Europe, a winter in Paris, and lastly touching upon the advantages of being lady supreme at Castlewild, with a house in the city, for winter. And as changeable, ambitious, Anna listened, she felt her resolution giving way, felt the ground which she had taken slipping from beneath her feet without one effort to save herself. “It seems terrible to wrong Adam,” she said, and, by the tone of her voice, Herbert knew the victory was two thirds won. “Adam will do well enough,” he replied. “People like him never die of broken hearts! He’s a good fellow, but not the one for you; besides, you know he’s what they call pious, just like Milly; and, I presume, he’ll say it was not so wicked for you to cheat him as to perjure yourself, as you surely would, by promising to love and honor and all that when you didn’t feel a bit of it!” “What was that you said of Miss Atherton?” Anna asked eagerly, for she had caught the word pious, and it made her heart throb with pain, for she knew that Herbert Dunallen could not say as much of her! Once, indeed, it had been otherwise, but that was before she had met him in the woods,—before she ceased to pray. Oh, that happy time when she had dared to pray! How she wished it would come back to her again; but it had drifted far away, and left a void as black as the night closing around her or the heavy thunder clouds rolling above her head. Tightly her hands clenched each other as Herbert answered jestingly. “She’s one of the religious ones, Milly is; writes me such good letters. I’ve one of them in my pocket now. She’s coming to see me; is actually on the way, so to-morrow night, or never, my bride you must be.” “Miss Atherton coming here! What do you mean?” Anna asked, and Herbert replied, “I mean, Mildred has always been in a fever to see Castlewild, and as she is intimate with Mrs. Judge Harcourt’s family, she is coming there on a visit. Will arrive to-morrow, her note said; and will expect to see me immediately after her arrival.” Herbert’s influence over Anna was too great for her to attempt to stop him, so she offered no remonstrance, when he continued!