"Not for the world. I want you, and you only. I love your dear mother very warmly, as you know. But oh, Laura, you can never know, how I love you!"
"You are taking an unfair advantage of me now;" she whispered, as she dropped her eyes, but not her hands; "I always thought, that you were so upright, and manly."
"So I am;" I answered, with my usual candour; "but I don't care how I sneak, or what I do; if I can only get you to be fond of me."
"What right have you to talk, with your chin in that condition? You will undo all the good my stupid hands can do you."
She raised her sweet eyes, to reproach me, as she spoke. And behold they were full of large bright tears!
I only said—"Darling, darling, darling!" each time, if possible, with greater fervour. And she answered, with a smile—"That is what I like to be."
CHAPTER XXXVIII. PREPARE.
The Government of England never guides us long, without guiding itself into a fearful mess. The Tories, and the Radicals, are much alike in this; but they differ very widely in their way of getting out of it. The former resign, or appeal to the Country; which seldom responds to their chivalry. The latter jumble up, (instead of joining) issue; and jump into Jack-of-the-lantern vagaries, all over any bog, where nobody can shoot them.