158 BEATING THE SPRINGS AND THE WOOD. 



61 1 would see you before you before you 



_y OU _- 



" Dearest, I will write to you constantly, 

 and I hope to have a home to offer you shortly. 

 If your mother persists " 



" Why did you make such a silly promise to 

 her?" 



This was said with an air of melancholy 

 coquettishness. 



" Because I didn't know who you were." 



We almost forgot for a while that we were 

 to part. I walked with her to the gate of the 

 house. Margaret turned pale when we came 

 in view of the modest mansion ; and I was 

 trembling all over. We halted on the steps 

 -of the entrance-porch. We could not, I be- 

 lieve, to save our lives have spoken a word 

 at the moment. Both Margaret's hands were in 

 mine ; and they seemed to cling and to linger 

 there, as if they would never leave their resting- 

 place. 



"Mrs. Brady's compliments, and will ye 

 both come in ?" calls aloud Mr. O'Brien from 

 the garden. 



The sentence was like the reading of a re- 



