"I know--I know! Nor was it my fault; I always advocated your return from school, but----" "Well, I am here now, and mean to make up for lost time. We will take a great many walks together; I will read to you all your favorite books, and we are going to have a quiet, happy life," and the young girl took her father's hand and carried it to her lips. "You are a dear, sweet child," said the baron, and his voice trembled slightly; "God grant that I may long enjoy your presence here!" "But, dear papa, don't give way to such melancholy thoughts! You are, God be thanked, quite as well and as hearty again as ever. Why should we not live a long time happily together?" "But if you should leave us?" "I am not going to die so soon, you may take that for granted," said Miss Helen, laughing. "God forbid! But children part with their parents in other ways besides dying. When you marry we shall have to give you up once more, after having but just gotten you back." "Why, papa, don't you speak as if I were to marry tomorrow morning! I have not even thought of it. Mamma, too, began to talk about that yesterday. I am afraid you want, both of you, to get rid of me again." "Ah, indeed! Your mother has spoken to you about that, hm, hm?" said the baron, thinking of course that the baroness must have come out with her long-prepared project, and admiring the skill with which she had chosen the time, the day before Felix arrived; "ah, indeed? hm, hm! Well, and how do you like your cousin?" "Whom? Felix?" asked Helen, as yet not in the least suspecting the connection of this question with what had gone before. "Yes." "He looks to me like the champagne we drank at dinner. The first drops tasted very good; but when the glass had been standing a little while, I found the wine quite flat and tasteless.--But you do not really intend me for Cousin Felix?" asked Miss Helen, very eagerly, as the thought suddenly flashed through her mind. "Oh, no, by no means--unless you choose; I mean--we shall never force your will in this respect," replied the old baron, rather confused, as he dared not tell the whole truth, and yet did not choose to state an untruth. Helen made no reply; but the thought she had awakened was actively at work in her mind. She compared the conversation she had had the day before with her mother with her father's words just now.... It required much less ingenuity than she possessed to discern the connection between many casual remarks and the two interviews. Her proud heart rebelled at the thought that her fate had been decided and her hand disposed of without consulting her wishes, and asking her own opinion; that this Felix, against whom her chaste heart was instinctively rising in arms, might already look upon her as his own! These thoughts occupied her mind so fully that she could not fall in with the loud admiration of the company, as they stepped out of the forest upon the bluff near the shore.