‘Nelly Rich! that was all your own invention, and my mother’s,’ said Frank,--‘not mine. I said she would have suited Laurie. If you chose to make up a story, that was not my fault.’ There was a pause after this, for Mary remembered but too distinctly the conversation about Nelly, and could not acknowledge that the story was of her invention. But she could hold her tongue, and did so steadily, making no remark, which Frank felt was as great an injury to him as if she had enlarged on the subject. He went along under the trees, quickening his pace in his agitation, without much thought of Mary, who had to change her steps two or three times to keep up with him. ‘I suppose you have no further curiosity?’ he said at length; ‘you don’t want to know who it really is.’ ‘Yes, Frank,--when you will tell me,’ said Mary, holding her ground. ‘You are very provoking,’ said her cousin;--‘if it were not that I had such need of you! You should not aggravate a poor fellow that throws himself as it were on your assistance;--I will tell you who it is whether you care to hear or no. It is Alice Severn,--Mrs. Severn’s daughter, who was Laurie’s great friend.’ ‘Laurie again!’ said Mary, amazed,--‘Mrs. Severn! Are we never to have an end of Laurie’s friends? You told me she had no daughters. You said something about a little girl. Ah, Frank! I am afraid it is some widow coquette that first made a victim of Laurie and now has done the same to you. I knew there was something mysterious about his going away.’ ‘I wish you would talk of things you understand,’ said Frank, indignantly. ‘Alice is only sixteen. She is, I believe, the purest, simplest creature that ever lived. As for Laurie, she was a child to him;--he treated her like a child.’ ‘Sixteen! Of course she is only a child,’ said Mary; ‘and the daughter of Mrs. Severn the painter! Frank, you must be mad.’ ‘I think I shall be, unless you help me,’ said the young soldier. ‘Her mother is furious against me, Mary; and so will my own mother be, I suppose. But what does it matter when we are going to India? We shall be able to live on what we have. She has no expensive tastes, nor have I.’ ‘You,--no expensive tastes?’ cried Mary. ‘Oh, Frank! do pause and think. I did not care for Nelly Rich, but this is far worse. Nelly Rich was of no family, but she had money; whereas this girl is----’ ‘The creature I love best in the world,’ said Frank, interrupting her hastily, with a sudden glow upon his face. ‘It is of no use speaking. If I have to give up mother, and home, and friends, and all I have in the world, I shall still have Alice,--and Alice means everything. It is because you don’t know her. But I tell you there never was any one like her. And, Mary, if you don’t stand by us, I will throw up everything else I care for in the world.’ ‘But not her?’ asked his cousin, raising her eyes to his face.