"I wish it had not been so!" was the involuntary mental ejaculation. A sigh parted his lips--a sigh that only the quick ears of his wife perceived, and only her heart echoed. During the short time the family were together that evening, Mr. Markland noticed in Fanny something that gave him concern. Her eyes always fell instantly when he looked at her, and she seemed sedulously to avoid his gaze. If he spoke to her, the colour mounted to her face, and she seemed strangely embarrassed. The fact of her having received a letter from Mr. Lyon, the contents of which he knew, as it came open in one received by himself from that gentleman, was not a sufficient explanation of so entire a change in her deportment. Mr. Markland sought the earliest opportunity to confer with his wife on the subject of Fanny's altered state of mind, and the causes leading thereto; but the conference did not result in much that was satisfactory to either of them. "Have you said any thing to her about Mr. Lyon?" asked Mr. Markland. "Very little," was answered. "She thought it would only be courteous to reply to his letter; but I told her that, if he were a true man, and had a genuine respect for her, he would not wish to draw her into a correspondence on so slight an acquaintance; and that the only right manner of response was through you." "Through me!" "Yes. Your acknowledgment, in Fanny's name, when you are writing to Mr. Lyon, will be all that he has a right to expect, and all that our daughter should be permitted to give." "But if we restrict her to so cold a response, and that by second-hand, may she not be tempted to write to him without our knowledge?" "No, Edward. I will trust her for that," was the unhesitating answer. "She is very young," said Mr. Markland, as if speaking to himself. "Oh, yes!" quickly returned his wife. "Years too young for an experience--or, I might say, a temptation--like this. I cannot but feel that, in writing to our child, Mr. Lyon abused the hospitality we extended to him." "Is not that a harsh judgment, Agnes?" "No, Edward. Fanny is but a child, and Mr. Lyon a man of mature experience. He knew that she was too young to be approached as he approached her." "He left it with us, you know, Agnes; and with a manly delicacy that we ought neither to forget nor fail to appreciate." The remark silenced, but in no respect changed the views of Mrs. Markland; and the conference on Fanny's state of mind closed without any satisfactory result. The appearance of his daughter on the next morning caused Mr. Markland to feel a deeper concern. The colour had faded from her cheeks; her eyes were heavy, as if she had been weeping; and if she did not steadily avoid his gaze, she was, he could see, uneasy under it. As soon as Mr. Markland had finished his light breakfast he ordered the carriage. "You are not going to the city?" his wife said, with surprise and disappointment in her voice.