"I was praying to God that He may guard mother, and restore our friend to health," answered the young girl, rising; and she proceeded with a sigh: "My heart feels heavy. May no misfortune threaten us."
Saying this, the confiding girl sat down to her embroidery. Her brother took a seat beside her on a stool. After a few seconds he broke the silence:
"Hena, do you remember that about three months ago I suddenly changed towards you?"
Not a little surprised at these opening words, the young girl answered:
"Why recall those evil days, brother? Thank heaven, they are over; they will not return."
"Do you remember," Hervé proceeded without noticing his sister's words, "do you remember that, so far from returning, I repelled your caresses?"
"I do not wish to remember that, Hervé; I do not think of it now."
"Hena, the reason was I had made a strange discovery in my heart—I loved you!"
The young girl dropped her needle, turned suddenly towards her brother, and, fixing upon him her astonished eyes, looked at him for a moment in silence. Thereupon, smiling, and in accents of tender reproach, she said:
"How! Were you so long making the discovery that you loved me? And did the discovery seem to you—strange?"