Page:Ethel Churchill 1.pdf/279

Rh form drooping carelessly forward—was one of utter dejection. The eye-lashes shone with unshed tears; there was too much uncertainty for the relief of weeping. The large blue eyes were fixed on the fire: dilated and unconscious, they knew not what they saw. Alas! it was too soon with Ethel for the past to engross the spirit, that should have been hopeful and buoyant, so entirely. "All I hope is," exclaimed Sir Jasper, breaking the silence into which they had gradually sunk,—"that Henrietta will never love. She is guarded against it both by knowledge and ambition. She has not, like most girls, been sedulously kept from considering what is in reality the most important subject they can consider. On the contrary, she has, from the first, been taught to examine and to know the evil which mere selfishness should teach her to shun." "You think love, then, to be an evil?" asked Ethel, timidly. "I look upon it," replied the old man, "as