‘Not alone, certainly.’

‘And actually,’ he pursued, ’I don’t believe I ever think of her when I am out of the way of her!  No, indeed! if I had not believed that was all over, do you think I could have said what I did yesterday?’

‘Not unless you believed so.’

’Well, but really you don’t consider how little I have seen of her.  I was in awe of her at first, and since, I have kept away on purpose.  I never got on with her at all till the other evening.  I don’t believe I care for her one bit.  Then,’ suddenly pausing, and changing his tone, ‘you don’t trust me after all.’

’I do.  I trust your principle and kindness implicitly, but I think the very innocence of your heart prevents you from knowing what you are about.’

‘It is very hard,’ said Louis; ’every one will have it that I must be in love, till I shall have to believe so myself, and when I know it cannot come to good.’

‘You are making yourself more simple than you really are,’ said Mra.  Ponsonby, half provoked.

Louis shut his eyes, and seemed to be rousing his faculties; then, taking a new turn, he earnestly said, ’You know that the promises must settle the question, and keep my affections fast.’

’Ah, Louis! there is the point.  Others, true and sincere as yourself, have broken their own hearts, and those of others, from having made vows in wilful ignorance of latent feelings.  It would be a sin in me to allow you to bind yourself to Mary, with so little comprehension as you have of your own sentiments.’

‘Then I have done wrong in proposing it.’

’What would have been wrong in some cases, was more of blindness—­ay, and kindness—­in you.  Louis, I cannot tell you my gratitude for your wish to take care of my dear girl,’ she said, with tears in her eyes.  ‘I hope you fully understand me.’

’I see I have made a fool of myself again, and that you have a right to be very angry with me.’

‘Not quite,’ said Mrs. Ponsonby, smiling, ’but I am going to give you some advice.  Settle your mind as to Miss Conway.  Your father is beginning to perceive that his distrust was undeserved; he has promised me not to object in case it should be for your true happiness; and I do believe, for my own part, that, in some respects, she is better fitted for his daughter-in-law than my poor Mary.’

‘No one ever was half as good as Mary!’ cried Louis.  ’And this is what you tell me!’

’Mind, I don’t tell you to propose to her, nor to commit yourself in any way:  I only tell you to put yourself in a position to form a reasonable judgment of your own feelings.  That is due to her, to yourself, and to your wife, be she who she may.’

Louis sighed, and presently added, smiling, ’I am not going to rave about preferences for another; but I do want to know whether anything can be done for poor Jem Frost.’

‘Ha! has he anything of this kind on his mind?’