'By heaven, Arwed, you do me injustice!' exclaimed. Christine, springing up and holding out her beautiful hand to him. 'My feelings are as kind toward you now as formerly, when we, two joyous children, sought shells together on the beach; and I would be on yet better terms with you; only you appear not to desire it.'
'How do you mean?' asked the ingenuous Arwed, who understood his cousin but too well.
'In one word,' she suddenly exclaimed, 'my father destines my hand for you, and I shall be compelled to oppose his determination.'
'That is indeed no very flattering communication,' said Arwed. 'It explains the unmannerly reception you gave me, however. It was nothing but your fear of my tenderness; but as you know your father's intentions, so you should also know the impediments, on my side, in the way of their accomplishment. I love another maiden.'
'That I knew,' said Christine, 'but I was afraid....'
'That your cousin's truth would not be able to withstand these powerful attractions,' said Arwed completing the sentence for her. 'You are either very vain of your charms, beauteous cousin, or have made acquaintance with very bad specimens of our sex.'
A deep sigh escaped from the oppressed bosom of Christine.
'Now, so long as I remain here,' continued Arwed, 'it shall be my most anxious endeavor to restore my sex to your good opinion. In the first place I shall quiet your apprehensions by the assurance, that my heart is entirely filled by a distant and beloved object,--that I shall never become troublesome to you as a suitor,--and that I will decline the proposed connection with so much decision, that the anger of our parents shall fall entirely on myself. I would love you as a brother should love a sister; but I would also be allowed the brother's right to tell you the truth whenever I may think it necessary to your welfare,--would counsel you,--warn you....'
'Yes, Arwed, be my brother!' cried Christine, with a convulsive pressure of his hand. 'Ah, that you could always have been so!'
'By this, however,' said Arwed, 'I must consider myself as having acquired some claim to your sisterly confidence. I am glad to know that you can feel no other sentiment for me, as it would give me pain to be compelled to reject your heart as well as your hand. But I cannot possibly believe that your coldness extends to the whole sex. That, indeed, would be still more unnatural than your horse-racing and bear-hunting; No, no! your heart is not insensible. The glance of your eye, like the diamond, now flashing fire, and now dissolving in crystals, has already revealed it. You know what it is to love!'