wonderfully excited; with the race, eh? Now,
just—you—wait—quietly—till next week, and
then, if you are so soft as to ask me in cool
blood——"

"Wait a week?" cried the impetuous youth.
"No, not a minute. It is settled. There, we
cram Logic together next term."

And he shook Edward's hand again with
glistening eyes and an emotion that was quite
unintelligible to Edward; but not to the quick,
sensitive, spirits, who sat but fifteen yards off.

"You really must excuse me just now," said
Edward, and ran to the carriage, and put out
both hands to the fair occupants. They kissed
him eagerly, with little tender sighs; and it
cost them no slight effort not to cry publicly
over "the beloved," " the victorious," "the
ploughed."

Young Hardie stood petrified.

"What? These ladies Dodd's sisters! Why,
one of them had called the other mamma.
Good Heavens, all his talk in their hearing had
been of Dodd; and Kennet and he between
them had let out the very thing he wanted to
conceal, especially from Dddd's relations. He
gazed at them, and turned hot to the very forehead.

Then, not knowing what to do or say, and
being after all but a clever boy, not a cool " never
unready" man of the world, he slipped away,
blushing. Kennet followed, goggling.

Left to herself, Mrs. Dodd would have broken
the bad news to Edward at once, and taken the
line of consoling him under her own vexation:
it would not have been the first time she had
played that card. But young Mr. Hardie had
said it would be unkind to poison Edward's day,
and it is sweet woman's nature to follow suit;
so she and Julia put bright faces on, and Edward
passed a right jocund afternoon with them; he
was not allowed to surprise one of the looks
they interchanged to relieve their secret mortification.

But, after dinner, as the time drew near for
him to go back to Oxford, Mrs. Dodd became
silent, and a little distraite; and at last drew
her chair away to a small table, and wrote a
letter.

In directing it she turned it purposely, so
that Julia could catch the address: " Edward
Dodd, Esq., Exeter College, Oxford."

Julia was naturally startled at first, and her
eye roved almost comically to and fro the letter
and its Destination, seated calm and unconscious
of woman's beneficent wiles. But her
heart soon divined the mystery; it was to
reach him the first thing in the morning,
and spare him the pain of writing the news to
them; and, doubtless, so worded as not to leave
him a day in doubt of their forgiveness and
sympathy.

Julia took the missive unobserved by the
Destination, and glided out of the room to get it
quietly posted.

The servant-girl was waiting on the second-
floor lodgers, and told her so, with a significant
addition, viz. that the post was in this street,
and only a few doors off.

Julia was a little surprised at her coolness,
but took the hint with perfect good temper, and
just put on her shawl and bonnet, and went with
it herself.

The post-office was not quite so near as represented;
but she was soon there, for she was eager
till she had posted it; but she came back slowly
and thoughtfully: here in the street, lighted only
by the moon, and an occasional gaslight, there
was no need for self-restraint, and soon her
mortification betrayed itself in her speaking
countenance. And to think that her mother,
on whom she doted, should have to write to
her son, there present, and post the letter!
This made her eyes fill, and before she reached
the door of the lodging, they were brimming
over.

As she put her foot on the step, a timid voice
addressed her, in a low tone of supplication.
"May I venture to speak one word to you, Miss
Dodd?—one single word?"

She looked up surprised; and it was young
Mr. Hardie.

His tall figure was bending towards her
submissively, and his face, as well as his utterance,
betrayed considerable agitation.

And what led to so unusual a rencontre
between a young gentleman and lady who had
never been introduced?

"The Tender Passion," says a reader of many
novels.

Why, yes; the tenderest in all our nature:

Wounded vanity.

Naturally proud and sensitive, and inflated by
success and flattery, Alfred Hardie had been
torturing himself ever since he fled Edward's
female relations. He was mortified to the core.
He confounded "the fools" (his favourite
synonym for his acquaintance) for going and
calling Dodd's mother an elder sister, and so not
giving him a chance to divine her. And then
that he, who prided himself on his discrimination,
should take them for ladies of rank, or, at
all events, of the highest fashion; and, climax of
humiliation, that so great a man as he should go
and seem to court them by praising Dodd of
Exeter, by enlarging upon Dodd of Exeter, by
offering to grind Logic with Dodd of Exeter.
Who would believe that this was a coincidence,
a mere coincidence? They could not be expected
to believe it; female vanity would not let them.
He tingled, and was not far from hating the
whole family: so bitter a thing is that which
I have ventured to dub "the Tenderest
Passion."

He itched to ease his irritation by explaining
to Edward. Dodd was a frank, good-hearted
fellow; he would listen to facts, and convince
the ladies in turn. Hardie learned where Dodd's
party lodged, and waited about the door to catch