It was impossible not to see with one’s eyes open that Mr. Style was becoming deeply and vitally interested in Jessie, though in her simplicity and humility she was wholly unconscious of it; and if she had conceived the possibility of such a thing, she would bitterly have rebuked her own presumption, for she regarded herself altogether too humble to aspire to such a position in the world as to become the wife of such a gifted man. It is true that the lustre of his mind, the high tone of his moral endowments, and the faultlessness of his exterior moulding, _charmed_ her—and what young heart would they _not_ charm, I pray you tell me, dear lady reader? But the idea of loving Mr. Style with any other love than that which is inspired and sanctioned by respect and friendship merely never entered her mind. Jessie was, however, the beau ideal of all his visions—the pure, pious, refined, and high-souled woman he had always hoped to meet before he surrendered his heart with its rich treasury of manly and generous love. He knew her history—you shall know more of it anon, reader—and he admired and revered the strength and unconquerable resolution with which she had combated and triumphed in the midst of the most depressing discouragements. Respect, admiration, love, combined to make him—no, not a willing slave at her feet—he felt her moral nobility would revolt at that; but they made him ready to plant his strength by the side of her weakness, to be its defence and protection till the death-angel should come, commissioned to guide her from earth to heaven. CHAPTER IV. Mrs. Tyler and Elizabeth, Mrs. Varley’s genteel “metropolitan friends,” had detained themselves at Saratoga so long as the most fashionable company remained. But they at length wrote a hasty note to the “dear Varleys” stating definitely when they should be at the depôt in N., expecting to see the carriage in waiting. And they did come, “bag and baggage,” to stay till November—it was only _August_ then, and they flattered themselves, so they announced, that even in so short a stay, very much happiness might be reciprocated.