"You're right, Hannah;" and turning in the opposite direction, she presently saw him walking with rapid strides up the road back of the farm. "If his mother were alive, she would go to her closet and tell her trouble to God," murmured Hannah, wiping away a tear; "and I'll do the same, for as sure as the sun will set to-night, there's sorrow before my poor, undisciplined girl, if she gives her heart to that man." It was indeed as the good woman had apprehended, too late to interfere between the lovers. From the very hour when waking from his sleep, Paul had seen the bright vision before him, he had cast aside honor, fame, future success and every thing else, with the determination to win this beautiful creature in all her sweet fresh girlhood. He easily foresaw, that her present beauty, great as it was, only gave promise of what it would be when more fully developed; and he was certain that unless he secured her now, he would have rivals with whom it might not be easy to compete. He acknowledged that she was backward in many branches; but, then she knew so many things of which girls of her age were usually ignorant. There was not a flower in her garden; and scarcely an herb growing in the vicinity that she could not describe, and explain its uses. Then she was such an ardent lover of nature, and so enthusiastic over a fine view;—she had such wonderful power over animals;—the most stubborn farm-horse on the place, yielding readily to the touch of her slender fingers. As to learning, he reasoned with himself, that it would be a delightful task to open before her expanding intellect the gems in literature. If he had her to himself, he would educate her according to his own favorite theories, and would have no one but himself to blame if she did not make a wife to suit him. He passed hours when every other inmate of Rose Cottage was asleep in what he called calm reflection. There was only one subject which worried him. "If I only could ascertain," he said to himself, again and again, "whether she has any property in her own right; enough for instance to set up house keeping. Wallingford was always economical; but never pinched as I often am; and the estate here must be very valuable. I was surprised to find the style of living so far beyond ours at home."