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MY COUSIN. 
223 
MY COUSIN. 
Well, sir, but here's to us both, from that 
time forth it became the great object of my life to 
effect that which I had failed of in my youth ; 
and which my lovely little cousin so provokingly 
persisted in refusing. Why, sir, we were cousins ; 
and, pray, what was there improper in it? Be- 
sides, hadn't I been absent five years? and now, 
when I returned, and was kissed by all, uncle, 
aunt, nurse, down almost to the washerwoman, it 
was absolutely outrageous that she alone was to 
stand out and be obstinate. But she was so love- 
ly that I couldn't get angry at her ; and, besides, 
what use would it have been to fume and fret? 
It wasn't the way to conquer, I'd learned that, 
anyhow, and it would have been ungallant in 
the highest. How should I win? I had but a 
couple of months to stay, and she was so popular 
that all the beaux of the country were thronging 
in her train. I'd a hard task before me, and it 
would have disheartened many a one ; but I had 
been to the Black Hills, and shot buffalo. 
There was one of her suitors, named Thornton, 
whom she seemed to like better than the rest ; and 
I must say, during the first month of my visit, she 
coquetted wdth him a good deal at my expense. It 
used to give me a touch of the old flutter now 
and then, but I consoled myself that, as I was not 
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