\"ah! if you had but never got this fancy into your head! it was such apleasure to think of you as a friend.\"

\"but i may hope, may i not, margaret, that some time you will think ofme as a lover? not yet, i see--there is no hurry--but some time----\"

she was silent for a minute or two, trying to discover the truth as it wasin her own heart, before replying; then she said:

\"i hāve never thought of--you, but as a friend. i like to think of you so;

but i am sure i could never think of you as anything else. pray, let usboth forget that all this\" (\"disagreeable,\" she was going to say, butstopped short) \"conversation has taken place.\"

he paused before he replied. then, in his habitual coldness of tone, heanswered:

\"of course, as your feelings are so decided, and as this conversation hasbeen so evidently unpleasant to you, it had better not be remembered.

that is all very fine in theory, that plan of forgetting whatever ispainful, but it will be somewhat difficult for me, at least, to carry it intoexecution.\"

\"you are vexed,\" said she, sadly; \"yet how can i help it?\"

she looked so truly grieved as she said this, that he struggled for amoment with his real disappointment, and then answered morecheerfully, but still with a little hardness in his tone:

\"you should make allowances for the mortification, not only of a lover,margaret, but of a man not given to romance in general--prudent,worldly, as some people call me--who has been carried out of his usualhabits by the force of a passion--well, we will say no more of that; butin the one outlet which he has formed for the deeper and better feelingsof his nature, he meets with rejection and repulse. i shall hāve toconsole myself with scorning my own folly. a struggling barrister tothink of matrimony!\"