About soon to be elevated to the rank of a Senior, he had begun to think himself in a position to show his passion more openly than he had hitherto ventured to do. He little suspected that the lofty Adelaide had divined his feelings from the first, and had received his timid attentions with sensations of gratified pride and amusement that, unmingled with any softer feeling, promised little for the success of his suit. The lady, accustomed to admiration, considered all homage as her due; and, looking on Frederick Lanier as a mere boy, she talked to him familiarly when she so inclined, and made use of him in a gracious and royal manner without the slightest tender consideration for his feelings, or fear of the consequences. She had known many men and boys to fall in love with her, and, when they had found out that she did not and would not reciprocate their affection, the worst that had ever happened was that they had married somebody else; and this she calmly contemplated as the probable termination of Frederick Lanier's passion, while he was internally vowing a lifelong devotion to the lady of his heart. He had discovered that she was to pass two or three weeks at the White Mountains during the month of July. He decided to arrange his summer wanderings so as to be there at the same time. Meantime, a vague desire to be alone, to feed on his own thoughts free from the importunate interruptions of even the members of his own family, induced him to follow the example of several of his college companions, and undertake a pedestrian tour. This proposal was not received with any approbation by his uncle's family. "Now, Fred," said his cousin Emily, "this is too bad. We were going to have such a pleasant time at Lake George this summer, and had relied upon you to go with us. Father will have to be away a great deal, and I am sure I don't know what we shall do without you to go about with us. I have asked Bessie Graham to accompany us, too, and I particularly wanted you to become better acquainted with her." "Bessie Graham! Why, she is a little girl." "She is nearly seventeen," replied Emily. "Well, she is a very small specimen of womankind, and I have no particular admiration for little women; besides, she is somewhat of a chatter-box, is she not?" "She talks a little, but not too much," was the reply. "And laughs a great deal. I like dignified manners better." "For instance, Miss Adelaide Marshall's," said Emily, with a little irritation in her tone. "You are going to the White Mountains, you say?" "Yes." "And I heard Miss Marshall say, the other day, that she intended to pass two or three weeks there; so that accounts for your plan. It is a most absurd fancy of yours to fall in love with that iceberg. I have as much expectation of seeing you return with Mount Washington in your pocket, as with Miss Marshall on your arm."