With the thought of all the suffering caused by her want of frankness, she replied nobly, though with downcast eyes, "I have always regretted the decision, as well as the manner of it." She says, she was really frightened at the effect her words had upon him. For one instant he pressed her hand convulsively, and then walked back and forth through the room. She thought, she had been too free and hasty in answering; and a hundred other conjectures came to her mind; but she will not tell how they were solved. She says, if I am so curious, I must apply to head quarters. But this she will say, that she is satisfied, and very happy.
"Well then," I said, "will you please to give me the extract about Mr. Benson, which you cut out of aunt Morgan's paper? I suppose you have done with it."
Emily looked very rosy. "You deserve to be whipped, Cora," she said, laughing to hide her vexation at my discovery. "You must look out how you behave now, for I have a champion as well as you."
CHAPTER XXVIII.
"What is there in the vale of life
Half so delightful as a wife;
When friendship, love and peace combine
To stamp the marriage bond divine?" Cowper.