But Gusty heard nothing but the first part of the speech—jumping up, he caught his mother around the neck and gave her a boisterous kiss, caught her up in his arms, ran around the room with her, set her down, exclaiming, “Jupiter Tonnerre! mother, you have given me so much life, strength, force—what shall I do with it till to-morrow when I can carry it to Heath Hall and lay it at Hagar’s feet, say, mother! have you got a cord of wood to cut, a forest to fell—a—a—Lord! mother, if I could get hold of this earth I feel strong enough to hurl it through space!” Now he was walking up and down with glowing cheeks and dancing eye, swinging his arms and bringing his hands together with a clap, and turning off impatiently where the walls of the short room arrested him, just as you have seen a wild beast chafe in his cell. And Emily walked up and down uneasily behind him. At last he threw himself heavily in a chair. Emily came to him. “So, mother, girls mean ‘yes’ when they say ‘no,’ you can vouch for that by your own experience, hey, mother?” Emily had seen her mistake in having suggested this, and it added to her uneasiness. “Gusty,” she said, “whatever Hagar might have meant by her ‘no,’ that ‘no’ has fully exonerated you, if your rather emphatic attentions had raised hopes in her bosom. You must give up all attentions to her for many reasons.” “And how coolly you say that! Great God! how coolly you say that! As if you had spoken of the mere bagatelle of giving up my _life_, of the mere trifle of losing my _soul_. _Hagar!_ Stop, mother, let me hold my head tightly—there! so! now perhaps it won’t divide through the top—now, mother, tell me why must I give up Hagar?” “First and least, you are not rich, and Hagar is poor. Miss Churchill is the sole heiress of Heath Hall and the contiguous estate; that sounds very grandly, but just consider that Heath Hall is a ruin that daily threatens to topple down upon and entomb alive its proprietor, and that the Heath itself is now an irreclaimable desert.” “Dearest mother, that is not like you—Hagar’s poverty! I wish—I wish she was nameless as well as penniless, and I wish I was commander-in-chief of the American army, so that I might have everything to give her, and she everything to receive from me.” “But it is not so, you see, Gusty; for though she may have plenty of need, you have nothing to bestow, you also are poor!”