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which could scarcely be shaken even by such testimony.

She had promptly denied the imputation of "keeping company" with Lewis, and with truth; for be it known that the term has with us a sort of technical sense, which it would be difficult for me to explain. Suffice it to say, that it implies a regular Sunday evening visit from the gentleman; and that it is considered only part of the etiquette of "keeping company" if the sitting is prolonged far into the small hour, or even until daylight. This mode of courtship has the parental sanction, and is doubtless kept up in all modesty and good faith; yet some of us have been inclined to think that such a relic of the dark ages ought hardly to maintain a place under the light of the nineteenth century.

CHAPTER XLVI.

"But now I'm as waefu' as waefu' can be,
Come summer, come winter, 'tis a' ane to me!"

A FEAST of quilts, which was held in the neighbourhood about this time, afforded a convenient opportunity to convince Lewis Arden that he was not so happy as he thought himself. All the young people were to be there, and Miss Duncan told Candace that she never would forgive her if she did not show some" spunk." By way of security, she administered a double dose of flattery, and expended besides all her gayest taste in decorating the simple girl with finery like her own. She tortured the wilful curls into as fashionable a shape as possible; laced to thread-paper size the graceful and well-proportioned waist; and when she had made Candace look as unlike her own sweet natural self as possible, she hung round her neck

that very necklace of blue beads which made her own sallow complexion look so muddy, but which set off the pure white and red of the young beauty to a dazzling splendour, and matched the colour of her eyes better than any thing but living sapphires could have done.

"Now you look something like!" exclaimed the fashionable, when the great work was finished. "Them beads makes your neck look as white as a curd! I've a great mind to make you a present of 'em! What'll you give me if I do?"

Candace had nothing, and therefore could make no offer for the present; but Miss Duncan declared that should make no difference.

"You will find something, I dare say," said she, with an air of magnanimity; "or, may be, your mother will be a mind to give me one o' them nice cheeses of hers"

Candace was overpowered by such generosity, and she could not help blushing with pleasure as she gave a glance at her altered appearance, a bit at a time, in a triangular

fragment of looking glass which had been the only voucher for her beauty before Miss Duncan came.

"You do look like a picter, and no mistake;" exclaimed that lady, who was contemplating her work with much self-gratulation. "I hope you'll treat that Arden boy with some sperrit. I should let him know I wasn't too cheap for his betters. A fellow that hasn't got a cent to be so uppish!

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Strange! how soon this principle of estimation finds its way to the woods!

It never entered the wise head of our little Candace to question the truth of Miss Duncan's report, so there was a fine show of contempt at the quilting. Lewis Arden's attentions were rejected in every way, and although it was hard to make him understand, yet at last the meaning of things seemed, as Miss Duncan said, to "get through his hair." He said nothing, however; but in spite of his efforts at self-command, his brow grew redder and redder, till the veins stood out like whip-cord, and his

eyes looked as if they would be consumed in their own smothered fire. He took care to retort scorn for scorn with ample interest, whispered to the prettiest girls round the quilt, and at the romping scene of the shaking and folding, and during the dance which followed, any one who did not know Lewis Arden would have set him down as the gayest of

the gay.

Yet when the time for parting arrived, old habits resumed something of their wonted power. In the bustle of seeking bonnets and shawls he found a moment to speak to Candace out of hearing of Miss Duncan.

"Candace!" he whispered, "are you in earnest?"

We were not there, and nobody ever told us; but we can answer for it that the poor little heart of Candace, angry as she tried to be, thrilled to its core at these few words. But womanly pride came to her rescue, and she gave a brief reply in the newly adopted tone of disregard. "Then I am not to go home with

you to

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