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 live 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 with 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 
© =—-- ■ ® 
