“What man was it, then, that possessed the power of agitating this calm beauty?” “DON’T ask me!” broke forth Gusty, “I am mad! Oh, it is just madness now for me to dream such horrors! stay, let me hold my head! Murphy, don’t mind _me_,—I am crazy! the girl’s coldness has just set me beside myself!” They were silent some time, and then Gusty, suddenly seizing Murphy’s arm, exclaimed, “Murphy, forget all my raving, will you? I am a fool! I shall be jealous next of her embroidery frame!” It was not so easy to forget his agitation during the half-confiding of the slight suspicion. The friends soon after separated. Gusty went into the cabin. He found Rosalia happy over a pair of doves, a parting present left for her by Mr. Murphy. “Oh, Gusty,” she said, “come look at my beautiful young doves—this white one is a boy, and his name is Snowflake, and this silver-grey one is a girl, and her name is Dewdrop!” “Umph! two new claimants for a few of the infinitesimal atoms of your divided heart,” said Gusty, sitting down beside her. He was indisposed for conversation,—he was feeling too bitterly that the profound heart of the beautiful and gentle girl was still unmoved. Girls who virtually pledge their affections where they cannot love, do not so often commit this grievous error from the authority and commands of parents or guardians, from the persuasion of friends, from ambition, or for convenience, as from a different, a more amiable, yet still more improper set of motives, inspired by benevolence and love of approbation—thus: A young girl, with the deeps of her heart yet undisturbed, becomes the object of an ardent admiration—her vanity is stimulated and gratified—she may even mistake this pleasure for affection, and from pure ignorance of her own and her lover’s nature, and of the misery she may bring upon herself and others, she continues to receive and encourage his attentions. His admiration deepens into love, then her pity is moved, and though she cannot return the affection, she cannot resist the suit, and the hand is bestowed without the heart. As far as my limited experience extends, I have reason to believe that benevolence, love of approbation, together with a want of firmness, mislead more girls into the formation of ill-considered engagements than any other set of causes whatsoever. CHAPTER XXVII. AGNES AND AGATHA. “Oh, Heaven of bliss, when the heart overflows With the rapture a _mother_ only knows.” HENRY WARE.