“You may place, madam, what interpretation you please upon my language; and I am equally at liberty to interpret your conduct.----” “I deny your right to do any such thing!” she interrupted, vehemently; “you are here unbidden sir. If you bear a message from my brother to me, I ask of you only to deliver it to me--and to leave me; if you have no such message, I request you to depart at once?” “But----” exclaimed Mark, as if to explain. “I will hear from you, sir, nothing more than my brother’s words, if you have been entrusted with them,” persisted Lotte, indignantly. “You shall have them,” said Mark, in a freezing tone; “still, I imagined, as a friend---- “A friend!” echoed Lotte, bitterly. “A friend!” roared Mark, with a rather startling emphasis, forgetting his assumed coldness. “I loved and esteemed your sister, sir, as a friend,” exclaimed Lotte, in a tone of earnest feeling. She bit her lips to repress the sob that gushed up to her throat---“but you----” “I am answered!” he exclaimed in a low tone as she paused. “I had a weak and foolish fancy that--but it is dissipated, gone--for ever. I see now I stand but in the light of a meddlesome intruder, and have no title to ask from you any explanation of your mysterious conduct.” “None whatever!” said Lotte firmly. “Enough, madam,” he returned in an icy tone. “I have but then to say that your brother having, by means he will himself explain, discovered your abode, will be here to night to see you.” Lotte bowed, and remained silent. Mark twisted his hat round and round, looked at the door and gazed wistfully at her, but she stood immoveable, she pressed the infant to her bosom, and she never once raised her eyes to his. Her face was white as marble, yet he was sure he never saw her look so handsome--so beautifully interesting. Mark lingered. Could she be a guilty creature? It seemed impossible. Yet that child! coupled with her sudden flight, her continued and inexplicable absence. What other interpretation could he put upon her conduct? He gave a slight “Hem,” to clear his voice, and then said-- “You will see your brother when he comes, this evening?” Her eyelids slightly trembled. “Why do you ask that question?” she asked, sternly. “Because,” he returned almost fiercely, “he will not come to you if you wish him not to do so, for then he will know that he should _not_ come.” Lotte seemed to feel that she should fall into an hysterical paroxysm if this interview were to be prolonged. Yet her pride would not suffer her to yield, or to make an observation which would take the form of an admission either for or against herself. “I shall be at home,” she observed, laconically. “Which is to imply that he may come or remain away at his own inclining?” said Mark between his teeth. She bowed her head without reply. He gave one wild glance at her. “Guilty and hardened!” he muttered, and rushed from the room. She sank half-lifeless upon the sofa.