She did it for the best; but it put him in a rage, which he came at once to have out with me.
"And so, Miss Erema," he said, throwing down his hat upon the table of the little parlor, where I sat with an old book of Norman ballads, "I have your best wishes, then, have I, for a happy marriage with Miss Sylvester ?" I was greatly surprised at the tone of his voice, while the flush on his cheeks and the flash of his eyes, and even his quick heavy tread, showed plainly that his mind was a little out of balance.

He deserved it, however, and I could not grieve.
"You have my best wishes," I replied, demurely, "for any state of life to which you may be called.

You could scarcely expect any less of me than that." "How kind you are! But do you really wish that I should marry old Sylvester's girl ?" Firm, as he asked this question, looked so bitterly reproachful (as if he were saying, "Do you wish to see me hanged ?"), while his eyes took a form which reminded me so of the Sawyer in a furious puzzle, that it was impossible for me to answer as lightly as I meant to do.
"No, I can not say, Firm, that I wish it at all; unless your heart is set on it--" "Don't you know, then, where my heart is set ?" he asked me, in a deep voice, coming nearer, and taking the ballad-book from my hands.

"Why will you feign not to know, Erema, who is the only one I can ever think of twice?
Above me, I know, in every possible way--birth and education and mind and appearance, and now far above me in money as well.

But what are all these things?
Try to think if only you could like me.