Never before had she found an hour in her life when she wished for solitude in preference to his society,--her good, tender father.

She put Stephen out of her mind, and tried again to feel all her old interest in his plans for their amusement.

Alas, alas! The first secret, especially if it be a love-secret, makes a break in that sweet, confidential intercourse between a parent and child which nothing restores.

The squire hardly comprehended that there might be a secret.

Charlotte was unthoughtful of wrong; but still there was a repression, a something undefinable between them, impalpable, but positive as a breath of polar air.