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"Aye, clip my hair and dress the trooper, jack-boots and all, if you drive me to it!" she exclaimed, irritated "Youabout alone, and that's flat! See what a mess of it you were like to , yet touched to the heart, "I shall instruct you in the duties and amenities of wedded life, and we may as well marry and be done with it Once married, I, of course, shall do as I please in the matter of battles----"

"No, you shall not! You shall considerabout, nose in the air, and leavingmy eyes out over your foolishness? Do I not already know the terror of it with you in New York there, and only ten ham? Thank you, I am already instructed in the amenities of wedded life--if they be like the pleasures of betrothal--though I cared not a hat happened to Walter Butler, it is true, yet fell sick o' worry when you and Rosa--not that I feared you'd drown, either O Carus, Carus, you distract , and I never knehat you were about there in New York when you were not withevery petticoat on Hanover Square, for all I know!"

"Well," said I, amazed and perplexed, "if you think, under the circu in love after , I ed you--now----"

"No!" she interrupted angrily; "I shall not marry you, nor even betroth myself It may be that I can see you leave me and bid you a fair journey, unmoved I would to God I could! I feel that way now, and , and live over certain hours with you that plague me at times into a very passion But at moments like this I weary of you, so that all you say and do displeases, and I'm sick of the world and I know not what! O Carus, I am sick of life--and I dare not tell you why!"

She rested her head on her hands, staring down at her blurred ie, reflected in the polished table-top

"I have soht," she mused, "that the fault lay with you--somewhat"

"With me!"

"That you could force me to love you, if you dared The rest would not matter, then Misery o, because you do not kno to care for yourself If you will sail to France on the next packet, and re I care not where--only to know you are safe Will you? O Carus, I would my life were done and all ended!"