After All;

" Miss Phane , do you believe my innocence ? Do you believe that the accounts as they appeared in the neAvspaper at the time are literally true , that I was robbed by two ruffians of the money I was taking charge of , which I strongly suspect to have been part of a villanous plot to ruin me ? Oh , how I have suffered to think I was branded as a thief in your eyes ! " said Arthur passionatelyand anxiously awaiting her reply .

, " No , no , I don't believe that ; I have always thought yon innocent , " said Olivia feelingly ; " but you never explained this to me before , and I have suffered much to think that you had never vindicated your character to me , though I never believed you guilty . " " What ? Did yon never receive my letter explaining all ? " "No ; I never knew anything about it" said Olivia in accents of surprise .

" Then it has been intercepted . Oh cruel , cruel ! But I wrote two : did you never get either ? " asked Arthur excitedly . " No . Indeed , I thought yon had forgotten me , " she said quietly . " Never : we have both been deceived—tricked . How much unhappiuess to both of us might have been saved had we only known , " returned Arthur sadly ; and do you still love me with the old love ? " he asked in earnest toues .

For answer she laid her head on his shoulder , and allowed him to take her tiny hands and kiss them , and his arm stole aronnd her waist , when a loud shriek aroused them from their reverie , and Olivia recognised the voice of little Dolly .

She immediately rushed away to find out the cause of her scream , and found that she had awoke from a horrid dream , and she soon pacified her . After this interruption the lovers again held sweet communion , and Arthur at last pressed the question : " Will you be mine ?" " I cannot tell you now , Arthur" she replied , accompanied with a beseeching , loving glance . And Arthur pressed her to him and gently kissed

her yielding lips , which Avere half raised up to his , and after one long embrace he tore himself away from his precious enchantress , for such indeed she was to him ; and with all his determination he could not resist the sweet influence of those lips and eyes , both eloquent tin the living language of love ; and as he left the house he mentally promised to return on the morrow and receive his answer .

Olivia , though happy , still thought of her father ' s troubles , financial and domestic . The loss of her mother had been a great grief to her , and she knew how much her father had suffered too , and determined to do all in her power to soothe his sorrow . Poor Merrisslope , too , was almost mad , and roamed about the country like an escaped lunatic ; and she blamed herself for much of his misery . It was just six months since she had refused him at the altar , and he had grown worse ever since .

As for Arthur , he once again felt his old spirits return , as with a brisk step he walked homewards . Away with the spirit of philosophy and back to the regions of romance . Romance was life and soul to him ; how could he play the part of a cynic while such a creature as Olivia Phane lived ? Impossible ! "' The age of romance can never cease , ' and I believe Carlyle is right . A touch of Quixotic Utopianism gives a spice of enjoyment to reality , without which one would soon be satiated of plain unvarnished facts . " Thus he mused

as he gazed at the fleecy clouds in the li ght of the silver moon , and his imaginative fancy pictured sylph-like fairies in their pure Avhite forms , which mythical Avhim he folloAved as the clouds altered their shapes , without noticing whither he was going . Chimeras of all kinds were created in his fertile brain , as he went on inventing original ideas from the suggestive forms of the soft white vapour that hung in woolly billoAvs in the cerulean sky . Aircastles they were , floating in his mind , and he conjured up a vision of his beautiful Olivia as then- queen , reigning over his heart and countless retinues of servants . On , on he Avent , indul ging in his reveries of conception—his ideal