boyhood; and if there was one proverb which expressed the matrimonial aspect of that family well, it was “Love me little, love me long.” Humphrey was an honorable man, who would not think of treating his engagement so lightly. “Do you wait in patience,” he said; “all will be right enough in time.”
From these words Phyllis at firat imagined that her father was in correspondence with Mr. Gould, and her heart sank within her; for in spite of her original intentions she had been relieved to hear that her engagement had come to nothing, But she presently learned that her father had heard no more of Humphrey Gould than she herself had done; while he would uot write and address her affianced directly on the subject, lest it should be deemed an imputation on that bachelor’s honor.
“You want an excuse for encouraging one or other of those foreign fellows to flatter you with his unmeaning attentions,” her father exclaimed, his mood having of late been a very unkind one towards her. “I see more than I say. Don’t you ever set foot outside that garden-fence without my permission. If you want to aes the camp I’il take you myself some Sunday afternoon.”
Phyllis had not the smallest intention of disobeying him as to her actions, but she assumed herself to be independent with respect to her feelings. She no longer checked her fancy for the Huasar, though she was far from regarding him as her lover in the serious sense in which an Englishman might have been regarded as such. The young foreign soldier waa almost an ideal being to her, with none of the appurtenances of an ordinary house-dweller ; one whe had descended she knew not whence, and would disappear she knew not whither; the subject of a fascinating dream —no more.
