"No," she said gently, as she laid her hand upon his shoulder. "Let me speak to you as an elder sister might." "A sister!" he cried angrily. "Yes, as a sister," replied Millicent gently. "Christie Bayle, it was those very things in you that attracted me first. I never had a brother; but you, with your frank and free-hearted youthfulness, your genuine freshness of nature, seemed so brotherly, that my life for the past few months has been brighter than ever. Our reading, our painting, our music--Oh, why did you dash all these happy times away?" "Because I am not a boy," he cried angrily; "because I am a man--a man who loves you. Millicent, will you not give me hope?" There was a pause, during which she stood gazing right over his head as he still sat there with outstretched hands, which he at last dropped with a gesture of despair. "No," she said at last; "I cannot give you hope. It is impossible." "Then you love some one else," he cried with boyish anger. "Oh, it is cruel. You led me on to love you, and now, in your coquettish triumph, you throw me aside for some other plaything of the hour." Millicent's brow contracted, and a half-angry look came into her eyes. "This talk to me of brotherly feeling and of being a sister, is it to mock me? It is as I thought," he cried passionately, "as I have heard, with you handsome women; you who delight in giving pain, in trifling with a weak, foolish fellow's heart, so that you may bring him to your feet." "Christie--" "No," he raged, as he started to his feet, "don't speak to me like that. I will not be led on again. Enjoy your triumph, but let it be made bitter by the knowledge that you have wrecked my life." "Oh, hush! hush! hush!" she said softly. "You are not yourself, Christie Bayle, or you would not speak to me like this. You know that you are charging me with that which is not true. How can you be so cruel?" "Cruel? It is you," he cried passionately. "But, there, it is all over. I shall leave here at once. I wish I had never seen the town." "Christie," she said gently, "listen to me. Be yourself and go home, and think over all this. I cannot give you what you ask. Come, be wise and manly over this disappointment. Go away for a week, and then come back to me, and let our pleasant old friendship be resumed. You give me pain, indeed you do, by this outburst. It is so unlike you." "Unlike me? Yes, you have nearly driven me mad." "No, no. No, no," she said tenderly. "Be calm. Indeed and indeed, I have felt as warm and affectionate to you of late as a sister could feel for a brother. I have felt so pleased to see how you were winning your way here amongst the people; and when I have heard a light or contemptuous utterance about you, it has made me angry and ready to speak in your defence." "Yes, I know," he cried; "and it is this that taught me that you must care for me--must love me." "Cannot a woman esteem and be attached to a youth without loving him?"