"And what has happened?" said he, "something of mighty import, I am sure, or I should have heard my pretty Ellinor's merry laugh long before I crossed the threshold." Ellinor coloured and sighed, and worked faster than ever. Walter threw open the window, and whistled a favourite air quite out of tune. Lester smiled, and seated himself by his nephew. "Well, Walter," said he, "I feel, for the first time in these ten years, I have a right to scold you. What on earth could make you so inhospitable to your uncle's guest? You eyed the poor student, as if you wished him among the books of Alexandria!" "I would he were burnt with them!" answered Walter, sharply. "He seems to have added the black art to his other accomplishments, and bewitched my fair cousins here into a forgetfulness of all but himself." "Not me!" said Ellinor eagerly, and looking up. "No, not you, that's true enough; you are too just, too kind;--it is a pity that Madeline is not more like you." "My dear Walter," said Madeline, "what is the matter? You accuse me of what? being attentive to a man whom it is impossible to hear without attention!" "There!" cried Walter passionately; "you confess it; and so for a stranger,--a cold, vain, pedantic egotist, you can shut your ears and heart to those who have known and loved you all your life; and--and--" "Vain!" interrupted Madeline, unheeding the latter part of Walter's address. "Pedantic!" repeated her father. "Yes! I say vain, pedantic!" cried Walter, working himself into a passion. What on earth but the love of display could make him monopolize the whole conversation?--What but pedantry could make him bring out those anecdotes and allusions, and descriptions, or whatever you call them, respecting every old wall or stupid plant in the country? "I never thought you guilty of meanness before," said Lester gravely. "Meanness!" "Yes! for is it not mean to be jealous of superior acquirements, instead of admiring them?" "What has been the use of those acquirements? Has he benefited mankind by them? Shew me the poet--the historian--the orator, and I will vield to none of you; no, not to Madeline herself in homage of their genius: but the mere creature of books--the dry and sterile collector of other men's learning--no--no. What should I admire in such a machine of literature, except a waste of perseverance?--And Madeline calls him handsome too!" At this sudden turn from declamation to reproach, Lester laughed outright; and his nephew, in high anger, rose and left the room. "Who could have thought Walter so foolish?" said Madeline. "Nay," observed Ellinor gently, "it is the folly of a kind heart, after all. He feels sore at our seeming to prefer another--I mean another's conversation--to his!" Lester turned round in his chair, and regarded with a serious look, the faces of both sisters. "My dear Ellinor," said he, when he had finished his survey, "you are a kind girl--come and kiss me!"