" I want to hoar you Bay it over and over again ?" '• Oh, Dexter 1 had it not been that I loved you so much that beside it everything was notuing, I should never havu consented to these sacret visits when my uncle wai absent But, though I could not do otherwise, and am ao happy now I know how muoh you care for me, I cannot help feeling I hava done wrong to deceive my uncle, who is so kind and good." " A cranky old bachelor who shuts you up in this great hou3e alone, aud refuses to allow you any companion of your own age !" exclaimed Dexter Hartwiok, indignantly. ••Wby, he jvotd more like a jealous lover than an uncle ! It is his fault, not yours, dear, that the rights of youth which he ignores, have proved too muc'i for his old id"a 9." "Do not blame him. He refuses me noth ing except young society. It has only since I oame home from school that he has insisted on this. He s »y* l shall thank him some time for his wisdom, though I can't under stand it now." 11 Thank him, indead, for trying to make an old woman of you at eighteen !" saidDax ter. " I do not think that is his object," replied Oelia, thoughtfully. " Indeed, he seems bo Btrangn sometimes of late, that I do not know what to make of him. But I owe him obe dience, for he has taken the place of my dead father and mother ever siaoe I can remem ber." Gelia raised her dark eyes pleadingly to the brown ones of her lover as she spoke, as if to aak his kindly regard for her unole. Ha bent his handsome face to hers until their cheeks touohed, and answered laughingly, — "These stolen interviews have been so eweefc that it will net be hard for me to ex cuse his peouliar~fanoy, which has added to the romance of our acquaintance. But how fortunate ii has been tnat business has called him bo muoh away ! And how beautifully you managed to fall into my arms that first day !" " I have a mind to pull you hair— there ia a curl conveniently near. 