"Let all this be," said he, "as though it had never been." "That will hardly be possible, Louis," she answered.

"I cannot forget that I have been--cautioned." "But cannot you bring yourself to believe that I have meant it all for your good ?" "I have never doubted it, Louis;--never for a moment.

But it has hurt me to find that you should think that such caution was needed for my good." It was almost on his tongue to beg her pardon, to acknowledge that he had made a mistake, and to implore her to forget that he had ever made an objection to Colonel Osborne's visit.

He remembered at this moment the painful odiousness of that "Dear Emily;" but he had to reconcile himself even to that, telling himself that, after all, Colonel Osborne was an old man,--a man older even than his wife's father.

If she would only have met him with gentleness, he would have withdrawn his command, and have acknowledged that he had been wrong.
But she was hard, dignified, obedient, and resentful.