"O, Edward!" broke forth Little Wolf in agony, "I wish you could see this thing as I do but you cannot." There was silence for a few moments, which Edward broke by saying, sympathizingly, "I know why you feel as you do, darling, and I do not wonder at it, but warned by my own, as well as the experience of others, I shall keep a strict watch over myself for your dear sake, and I assure you there is no danger of me." "Then," said Little Wolf, despairingly, "I cannot persuade you to pledge yourself to total abstinence?" "No," said Edward decidedly, his pride deeply wounded by her implied doubts of his inability to control his appetite, "if you feel that you cannot trust yourself with me after all I have said, I can say no more." Had Edward fallen dead at her feet, Little Wolf could not have looked at him more hopelessly. But Edward was blind to her mute anguish, and mortified and impatient at her silence, and little dreaming of what her answer would be, he at length asked rather coolly, "Do you really feel that you cannot trust your happiness with me?" Little Wolf struggled a moment for composure, and then bowed her head in the affirmative. Edward's flushed face suddenly paled. "Very well," said he proudly, and without another word abruptly withdrew. His quick, impetuous footsteps echoed through the hall; the front door opened and closed, and soon the distant tinkling of bells announced that he had really gone. As the lovely violet closes its leaves when the shadows of night gather round, so closed the flower, which, in the sunshine of love, had bloomed in the heart of Little Wolf. She neither wept nor made any other demonstration of sorrow, but as she sat silent and alone her lips grew firm, and her eyes brightened and the pupils expanded, and her whole being seemed rising up in supernatural strength to bear the blow. CHAPTER XXV. THE SLEIGHING PARTY--CLARA HASTINGS--MOTHER AND SON. On his way home, Edward Sherman found himself suddenly assailed by a chorus of eager voices, as he unexpectedly encountered a sleighing party of gay young friends. They were bound for a settlement near by, where rural festivities were in anticipation. As he reluctantly drew up alongside of the capacious establishment, where nearly a dozen ladies, (including his own sister), and about the same number of gentlemen were cozily stowed away, he was beset with urgent solicitations to join their company. The affair, they stated, had been gotten up on a short notice during his brief absence from the city, and his sister had been inveigled into it, with the expectation of meeting her brother, and particular friend Dr. Goodrich. But the doctor had given them the slip, and they could not, on any account dispense with his society. Louise joined her entreaties with the others. "I will ride with you, brother," she said, if you will only go."