CHAPTER NINTH.
FRED A PEACEMAKER.
"Talk not of wasted affection, affection never is wasted.... its waters returning back to their spring, like the rain shall fill them full of refreshment"—H. W. Longfellow.
"Well Fred," said Emilie at the supper table, from which Mr. Parker was absent, "I go away to-morrow and we part better friends than we met, I think, don't we?"
"Oh yes, Miss Schomberg, we are all better friends, and it is all your doing."
"My doing, oh no! Fred, that is flattery. I have not made Edith so gentle and so good as she has of late been to you. I never advised her to give up that little room to you nor to send poor Muff away."
"Didn't you? well, now I always thought you did; I always kid that to you, and so I don't believe I have half thanked Edith as I ought."
"Indeed you might have done."