_Courage, ma chere!_ "Alfred," said she, at length, "listen to me.

Go to your mother before she goes to bed to-night, and say to her that there are reasons why she must not speak of your engagement to any body, not even to Hope Wayne.
And if she begins to pump you, tell her that it is the especial request of the lady--whom you may call 'she,' you needn't say Hope--that no question of any kind shall be asked, or the engagement may be broken.
Do you understand, dear ?" Fanny leaned toward him coaxingly as she asked the question.
"Oh yes, I understand," replied Alfred.
"And you'll do just as Fanny says, won't you, dear ?" said she, even more caressingly.
"Yes, I will, I promise," answered Alfred.
"You may kiss me, dear," said Fanny, leaning toward him, so that the operation need not disarrange her toilet.
Alfred Dinks kept his word; and his mother was perfectly willing to do as she was asked.

She smiled with intelligence whenever she saw her son and his cousin together, and remarked that Hope Wayne's demeanor did not in the least betray the engagement.

And she smiled with the same intelligence when she remarked how devoted Alfred was to Fanny Newt.
"Can it possibly be that Alfred knows so much ?" she asked herself, wondering at the long time during which her son's cunning had lain dormant..