my commission if therefore miss would not allow me to introduce the subject in the customary hall manner it became necessary to the arrange ment of my plans that i should adopt some other method of bringing the question to a final decision it was doubly painful to me to have no other alternative because i knew that her fortune and her position in society had rendered a m te proposal of marriage a circumstance of such common occurrence in her experience as to be despatched in the most summary manner yet i trusted to her good sense and generosity for in me what she had left me no means to avoid nothing could be more embarrassing to me however than the perfect silence with which my proposal was at last received i could see that she was affected by it � per too much affected for words but in what manner i was at a loss to comprehend and i had nothing left but to her to answer a question on which depended my happiness here and perhaps hereafter then i will treat you with a frankness equal to your own said die and briefly answer � no i whether my answer is dictated by duty or inclination can be of little consequence to you to know it is as u as if you were to me the least at being upon earth there remained little more for me to say for there was a firmness in the tone and manner of miss which left no doubt as to the strength of heir tion we were therefore pursuing our walk in silence when i perceived with that while she often turned away her head as if to look at the plants by the way or the prospect we were leaving tears were streaming from her es so fast that it was no longer possible to conceal them from my observation encouraged by this evidence of emotion whatever might be its secret cause i very naturally resumed the subject of our con to which however she only plied with more firmness and decision do not said she i entreat you do not mention this subject to me again the convictions which have already dictated my reply are not to be set aside by persuasion one thing however i would ask of you and i ask it in all humility � do not take my an � r do not let it separate us as friends i have been by the hall most behavior to you that i could be nothing more to you nor you to me and i am pained to the heart that you have not better understood me you understand me now i and i repeat again � do not let this foolish business separate us as friends i have no brother � i might almost say i have no father now do not utterly me in my desolation i told her then for the first time that i was about to return to india she started but immediately went on � � let us be like fellow travellers then who know that at the next stage they must separate for ever let us part kindly for the dream of our friendship will indeed have passed when you leave your native land again of all the different kinds of romance which take possession of the female mind there is none more unintelligible to man and few more than that friendship which she sometimes to him in the place of love had i better understood the character and situation of i should have known in her case at least that � he both offered it herself and needed it from me no or trifling degree and that the kindness she asked of me in melancholy and humble manner she had richly earned the right to demand by tiie noble sacrifice she was making as she be in my favor it may easily be supposed that after this interview i became a less frequent at the hall for i had never even when a youth been sufficiently poetical to understand the luxury of a hopeless attachment i consequently busied myself with tions for my return to india and thought as of my disappointment as i could i observed whenever we met was much altered she attempted to be lively but her forced spirits failed her more than ever and it was not difficult to perceive that some mental or rather spiritual conflict was absorbing every thought my sister often wished that she had some experienced adviser with whom she might converse i but happily for her she had already begun to feel that there is a beyond what human love can � a friend whose counsels are more than those of any earthly adviser hall with tbe exercise of a mind thus engaged and unable to in its deep experience i became gradually from the society of my sister s friend an indescribable feeling that our destiny was tending different ways seemed to keep me at a distance from her though whenever we met there was an humble and a expression in her features which made my heart ache to think what she was suffering or had suffered at times i wished to escape from the pain of seeing her thus altered and then again i wished more earnestly that i might stay and be ever near her if by this means it would be possible for me to partake of that influence which i could not but be sensible was and her character it is often observed that before the hour of final dissolution the appearance of the human a striking and almost supernatural change as if preparatory to that great event and is it not often to a certain extent the same before some of those fearful trials which mark the most important of human existence and merciful it is in the of providence that hall bo 