you
looking so cross about?"

"I am not cross," indignantly. "What is there to make me so?
There is no reason why you should not have innumerable
sweethearts as well as every other woman."

"Oh!" I say; and his last speech having made me aware that the
word "sweetheart" has been the cause of all the ill temper, I go
on wickedly, "why, none indeed; and this particular one of whom I
speak was such a darling! So good to me, too, as he was--I never
received an unkind word or a cross look from him. Ah! I shall
never forget him."

"You are right there. No virtue is as admirable as sincerity. I
wonder how you could bring yourself to resign so desirable a
lover."

"I didn't resign him. Circumstances over which we had no control
arose, and separated his lot from mine." Here I sigh heavily, and
cast my eyes upon the ground with such despairing languor as
would have done credit to an Amanda--or a Dora.

"If I am to be considered one of the 'circumstances' in this
matter," says my lover, hotly, "I may tell you at once I do not
at all envy the position. I have no desire to come between you
and your affections."

"You do not," I return, mildly; and, but that when a man is
jealous he loses all reasoning and perceptive faculties, he might
see that I am crimson with suppressed laughter. "Had you never
appeared on the scene, still a marriage between us would have
been impossible."

"What is his name?" asks 'Duke, abruptly.

"I would rather not tell you."

"I insist upon knowing. I think I have every right to ask."

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