She ceased speaking, but her eyes never for a moment left the white face, which had grown whiter as she proceeded, and which was now almost livid with chagrin, disappointment and rage. "I have nothing to offer which can extenuate my sin toward Nellie," he answered, at last, "though I did love her,—better than I love you,—but for certain reasons, I preferred that you should be my wife. You refuse me, and I know well to whom I am indebted for the good opinion you are pleased to entertain of me; but I warn you now, fair lady, that my precious cousin is no better than myself." "Hush!" interrupted Jessie. "You are not to speak of Walter in that way. Shall I consider our interview at an end?" She spoke with dignity, and motioned him toward the door. "Jessie," he stammered, as he started to leave the room, "I’ll admit that I’m a wretch, but I trust that you will not think it necessary to repeat this to everybody." "I have no desire to injure you," she answered, and walking to the window she stood until she heard him leave the house; then her unwonted calmness gave way, and she burst into a flood of tears, sometimes wishing she had spoken more harshly to him, and again regretting that she had been harsh at all. She might have spared herself this last feeling, for at that moment the man she had discarded was pouring into the ear of Charlotte Reeves words similar to those he had breathed to her not an hour before. And Charlotte, knowing nothing of Nellie,—nothing of Jessie, save that the latter had been a dreaded rival, said _yes_ to him, on condition that her father’s consent could be won. This last was an easy matter; for Mr. Reeves, who scarcely had an identity save that connected with his business, answered that in this thing Charlotte would do as she pleased, just as she did in everything else, adding in a kind of absent way: "I always intended giving her fifty thousand the day she was married, and after that my duty will be done." William could scarcely refrain from hugging his prospective father-in-law, but he wisely withheld the hug for the daughter, who, while he was closeted with the father, ran with the news to the grandmother. The next morning, as Jessie sat at her work, she was surprised at a call from Charlotte, who, seating herself upon the sofa began at once to unfold the object of her visit. "She was engaged, and Jessie could not guess to whom if she guessed a year." "William Bellenger," Jessie said at once, her lip curling with scorn, and her cheek growing slightly pale.