I can only say that it would make _me_ very happy; so do arrange it, dear Mr.Fenton, if possible, and oblige yours ever faithfully, ADELA BRANSTON." "Poor little woman," murmured Gilbert, as he finished the letter.

"No; we will not impose upon her kindness; we will go somewhere else.

Better for her that she should see and hear but little of John Saltram for all time to come; and then the foolish fancy will wear itself out perhaps, and she may live to be a happy wife yet; unless she, too, is afflicted with the fatal capability of constancy.

Is that such a common quality, I wonder?
are there many so luckless as to love once and once only, and who, setting all their hopes upon one cast, lose all if that be fatal ?" Gilbert told John Saltram of Mrs.Branston's offer, which he was as prompt to decline as Gilbert himself had been.

"It is like her to wish it," he said; "but no, I should feel myself a double traitor and impostor under her roof.