50 AN EVENING AT HOME.

 

my own age, nearly all of whom have since
turned out badly. I did not care a great
deal about their company; still, I liked so-
ciety, and used to be with them frequently
—especially when you and Mary went out
in the evening. On the night of the ball
to which you were going, these young men
had a supper, and I was to have been with
them. I did not wish particularly to jom
them, but preferred doing so to remaining at
home alone. To find you, as I did, so un-
expectedly, in the parlour, was an agree-
able surprise indeed. I stayed at home with
a new pleasure, which was heightened by
the thought that it was your love for me
that had made you deny yourself for my
gratification. We read together on that
evening, we played together, we talked of
many things. In your mind I had never
before seen so much to inspire my own
with high and pure thoughts. remembered
the conversation of the young men with
whom I had been associating, and in which
T had taken pleasure, with something like