"Cousin," she said, with sweetness and candour, as she held out her hand to him, "your words mean well, and it is flattering to me that you should think I can be anything to your life. Let me then tell you honestly, I think you are mistaken. Perhaps," she added kindly, "it is not needful to pursue this conversation, that has so surprised me, just now. Give me time. I promise to think of what you have said; and when we know each other better, I will tell you." He looked down gloomily. "Oh," he said bitterly, "your heart answers already; it does not respond to the simple language of my feelings. I truly do not know how to raise excitement and restless emotion. The servant of the Church cannot hope to cause the fiery passion that a--young officer----" She stood still. Her face was very pale, and her eyes were fixed upon him with a proud look. He stopped suddenly, as if displeased with himself, and his excited features resumed their usual smooth and calm expression. "Cousin," she said coldly, "I must beg you not to continue this conversation now. Examine your own feelings, and give me time. My father----" "Your father's wishes are my own," he said. She bent her head, and a melancholy look passed over her face. "My father," she then said, "cannot wish me to make any promise without examining my own heart." "And you will tell me your decision, when you have made this examination?" "Yes," said she. "Now leave me, I beg." A deep breath passed through his thin lips; he cast his eyes to the ground, and walked by her silently and gravely. "Here comes my father," cried Helena, and hastened to meet the pastor, who was returning by a side road leading to some of the scattered cottages of the village. The candidate followed in silence. "This is well," said the old gentlemen, "my children, that you come together to meet me; it is better in these troubled times not to be alone. Throughout the village there is sorrow and anxiety about the absent, the more so that a rumour is flying through the country of a most exciting nature." "What is the rumour, papa?" cried Helena; "nothing disastrous?" "Glorious, yet disastrous," said the pastor; "there has been a great battle, so it is said from village to village, from house to house. Our army has won a great victory; but much, much blood has been shed." "Oh, how horrible!" cried Helena, with great emotion, as she folded her hands. The candidate's quick eyes regarded her with curiosity; but she did not remark it, her looks were fixed on space. "People scarcely know which they feel," continued the pastor quietly, "joy at the victory, or anxiety lost sons and brothers should have fallen." "How happy are those," said the candidate, "who have no relative in the army; then there is no anxiety, no care."