"'Certainly not, Eve.'
"'But I must prepare my mind for the awful event,' said she, looking up at me with a bright, waggish smile.
"The time was fast approaching, however, when neither of us could see anything 'funny' in the prospect; for 'the awful event' became alarmingly palpable, when one day she met me with tears, and threw herself on my breast, saying:
"'Save me, dearest Jack—save me!'
"'From whom?"
"'Papa and his odious old Sudder judge, Jack, love. You know that I must marry you, and you only!'
"'The devil he does!' said a voice, sharply; and there, grim as Ajax, stood Uncle Beverley, with hands clenched and brows knit. 'My sister married his father, a beggar, with only his pay; and now, minx, you dare to love their son, by heavens, with no pay at all! Leave this house, sir—begone instantly!' he added, furiously, to me. 'I would rather that she had broken her neck on the mountains than treated me to a scene like this.'
"The gates of Beverley Lodge closed behind me, and our dream was over.
"Half my life seemed to have left me. After three years of such delightful intercourse I could not adopt the conviction that I should never see her again; and in a very unenviable state of mind I entered the college, where you may remember meeting me under the Doric portico, and saying:
"'What's up, Jack? But let me congratulate you.'