The letter was finished, and then Maggie took it to her grandmother, who read it eagerly, for in it she saw a fulfillment of her wishes. Very closely had she watched both Mr. Carrollton and Maggie, readily divining the truth that something was wrong between them. But from past experience she deemed it wiser not to interfere directly. Mr. Carrollton's avowed intention of returning to England, however, startled her, and she was revolving some method of procedure when Margaret brought to her the letter. "I am happier than I can well express," she said, when she had finished reading it. "Of course you have my permission to send it. But what has changed you, Maggie? Has another taken the place of Henry Warner?" "Don't ask me, grandma," cried Maggie, covering her face with her hands; "don't ask me, for indeed I can only tell you that I am very unhappy." A little skillful questioning on Madam Conway's part sufficed to explain the whole--how constant association with Arthur Carrollton had won for him a place in Maggie's heart which Henry Warner had never filled; how the knowledge that she loved him as she could love no other one had faintly revealed itself to her on the night when he asked if she were engaged, and had burst upon her with overwhelming power when she heard that he was going home. "He will never think of me again, I know," she said; "but, with my present feelings, I cannot marry Henry, unless he insists upon it." "Men seldom wish to marry a woman who says she does not love them, and Henry Warner will not prove an exception," answered Madam Conway; and, comforted with this assurance, Maggie folded up her letter, which was soon on its way to Cuba. The next evening, as Madam Conway sat alone with Mr. Carrollton, she spoke of his return to England, expressing her sorrow, and asking why he did not remain with them longer. "I will deal frankly with you, madam," said he, "and say that if I followed my own inclination I should stay, for Hillsdale holds for me an attraction which no other spot possesses. I refer to your granddaughter, who, in the little time I have known her, has grown very dear to me--so dear that I dare not stay longer where she is, lest I should love her too well, and rebel against yielding her to another." For a moment Madam Conway hesitated; but, thinking the case demanded her speaking, she said: "Possibly Mr. Carrollton, I can make an explanation which will show some points in a different light from that in which you now see them. Margaret is engaged to Henry Warner, I will admit; but the engagement has become irksome, and yesterday she wrote asking a release, which he will grant, of course."