With this opinion of his character, why not refuse
his company?"
"Can a maiden speak too hastily?"
"And if here, and ready to ask thy favor, the answer would be----"
"No!" said the girl, raising her eyes for an instant, and bashfully
meeting the eager look of her companion, though she uttered the
monosyllable firmly.
Mark seemed bewildered. An entirely new and a novel idea took possession
of his brain. The change was apparent by his altering countenance and a
cheek that glowed like flame. What he might have said, most of our
readers over fifteen may presume; but, at that moment, the voices of
those who had accompanied Whittal to the ruin were heard on their return,
and Martha glided away so silently as to leave him for a moment ignorant
of her absence.
Chapter XXII.
"Oh! when amid the throngs of men
The heart grows sick of hollow mirth,
How willingly we turn us, then.
Away from this cold earth;
And look into thy azure breast,
For seats of innocence and rest!"
Bryant's _Skies_
The day was the Sabbath.
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