appearance, and his face was of that striking and animated cast which one does not easily forget. His whole exterior was such as would claim some praise any where, and of course it was remarkable enough in a wild Western forest.

Caroline was evidently embarrassed at the meeting, but recovering herself, introduced the gentleman as Mr. Avenard, and made inquiries after some city friends. The stranger's manner, in spite of manifest effort, betrayed a degree of agitation, and he eyed Seymour with no gratified air. The latter felt himself in the way, but he did not know very well how to get out of it, so the trio rode together to Mr. Ellingham's.

Here Caroline apologized for not inviting the stranger to enter, on account of the situation of the family. His dark eyes flashed at this, and drawing as near her as possible, he asked, in a low tone, when he might hope to see her again.

Caroline felt cruelly embarrassed. A thousand indistinct thoughts flashed across her mind in an instant. She knew that Avenard, though never a declared lover, had had abundant reason to suppose himself not disagreeable to her, and her heart whispered that if her sudden departure from the city had not prevented, he would probably have been not only a declared but an accepted one. But even the short time which had flown since her return had been sufficient, under the circumstances, to throw an air of coldness and hollowness over

most of her city reminiscences, and even over her partiality for this gay young man. The grief of Mrs. Thurston, her distressing illness, and the angelic piety which sustained her under all, had opened to Caroline a new world of thought and feeling; and the delightful consciousness of being useful had given her a sense of the true value and aim of life. So that Avenard and his claims had been for the time forgotten, and now that they were presented anew, she felt unprepared and uncomfortable.

In reply to his question, she said, in a voice as low as his own, "I cannot receive a visit here, but if you will come in the morning, I will ride over with you to my father's."

He bowed proudly and without speaking, and, turning his horse's head, rode away evidently dissatisfied; and Seymour Bullitt, not entering as usual, went his way too, with his heart beating inconveniently, and his face almost as red as when Caroline first knew him—and about what?

He could not make up his own mind on this point. What was it to him that this dashing young stranger had evidently expected a favorable reception from Miss Hay? He called to mind all the evidences of the young lady's dislike to himself, and they were faithfully recorded in his memory, and then tried to bring proof equally satisfactory, of his own indifference to her likes or dislikes. It required all the time occupied in a

very long détour - a gallop of half a dozen miles or so to think over these things, and after all, when Seymour went to bed, the only fruit of his reflections was a manful resolution not to call at Mr. Ellingham's again while the stranger was in the neighborhood.

22

CHAPTER XXXIV.

Here are old trees, tall oaks, and gnarled pines,

That stream with gray-green mosses; here the ground
Was never trenched by spade, and flowers spring up unsown,
And die ungathered.

But hark! What voice, as thunder loud,
Now shakes the wilderness profound?

MRS. THURSTON

BRYANT.

CRYSTALINA.

was so ill that night, and seemed so dreadfully prostrated in the morning, that it was feared she could not survive the day. Caroline, absorbed in grief and anxiety, had scarcely thought of her promise to Avenard, and, when he appeared to claim it, she met him at the gate, and declared it impossible to leave her friend.

"You seem to have found very dear friends here, Miss Hay," said he, bitterly.

"So dear," she replied, "that I feel that I could almost lay down my own life to save that of the one I am now attending on her death-bed I fear -though I have known her but for a few weeks."

"It is new friends then who are so fortunate as to interest you! Perhaps the gentleman with whom I found you riding last evening was one of those happy beings whom you have not known long enough to despise!"

"On the contrary," said Caroline, "he is an old acquaintance, and a particular friend of my father's family."

"Oh! an old acquaintance and a family friend! very convenient relations, certainly! I presume you often claim his services as escort! ""

"Mr. Avenard," said Caroline, with some touch of her natural spirit, though she was a little humbled by the consciousness that the gentleman had some right to complain, "I know not by what right you address yourself to me in this manner! I deny your claim to the slightest interference in my choice of society."

"Caroline!" he said, in a changed and mournful tone, "do not drive me quite mad. I am unhappy, wretched, and to you at least I looked for sympathy and kindness! Do not trifle with my despair, but tell me when you will give me an opportunity to converse with you without interruption. I am about to leave the country."

Caroline was keenly touched by the change in his manner. Her eyes filled with tears, and she was on the point of promising an early meeting, when she was called anxiously from the house, and without an adieu to her companion, she was at the bedside of Mrs. Thurston in an instant.

Avenard waited as long as he decently could, and then, finding she did not return, he plunged into the wood, and hovered about within sight of