"I shall spoil you a great deal more before we get through. Next week, when Mr. Taylor comes, I intend to talk him into bringing you over to Wyllys-Roof, to pay a good long visit, like old times." "I had much rather think of old times, than of what is to come. There is nothing pleasant for me to look forward to!" "How can you know that, Jane? I have learned one lesson by experience, though I am only a year older than you, dear--and it is, that if we are often deceived by hope, so we are quite as often misled by fear." "I believe, Elinor, you are my best friend," said Jane, holding out her hand to her cousin. "Oh, you have more good friends than you think for, and much good of every kind, though you will shut your eyes to the fact." "It may be so," said Jane; "I will try to follow your advice, if I can." "Try hard, then," said Elinor, "and all will go well. And now, shall I sing you the song Mrs. Creighton cut short?" She began to sing "Auld Lang Syne;" but the song was interrupted before she had finished the second verse. Several persons were heard approaching their room, which was in a retired, quiet part of the house; the door soon opened, and in walked Robert Hazlehurst. "Well, good people," he exclaimed, "you take the world as quietly as anybody I know! We supposed, of course, you were at the ball, but Elinor's voice betrayed you. This way, Louisa," he said, returning to the door, after having shaken hands with Mr. Wyllys and Miss Agnes. "How glad I am to see you!" exclaimed Elinor--"you are as good as your word; but we did not expect you for several days;" and Jane and herself went to the door to meet Mrs. Hazlehurst. "And, pray, what reason had you to suppose that we should not keep our word?" said the latter, as she appeared. "We thought Harry would probably detain you," said Elinor. "Not at all; we brought him along with us." "That was a good arrangement we had not thought of," observed Miss Agnes. Harry entered the room. He was not entirely free from embarrassment at first; but when Mr. Wyllys met him with something of the cordial manner of old times, he immediately recovered himself. He kissed the hand of Miss Agnes, as in former days, and saluted Elinor in the same way, instead of the more brotherly greetings with which he used to meet her of old. "And here is Jane, too, Harry," said Mrs. Hazlehurst, who had just embraced her sister. "You have been so long away, that I dare say you have forgotten half your old friends." "Not at all," said Harry, crossing the room to Jane. "I think myself a very lucky fellow, at finding them all collected here together, for my especial benefit. I met Mr. Taylor for a moment in New York," he continued, addressing Jane. "Did he say when he was coming for me?" replied Mrs. Taylor, offering her hand to her kinsman. "He told me that he should be at Saratoga very shortly." "I have a letter for you in my trunk, Jane," said Mrs. Robert Hazlehurst.