"Perhaps you are right."
"I shall not hurry her to fix the day, you know, but I abhor long courtships; and these things can be as well settled in a week as in a year."
"But if———
"No, no; a 'but' and an 'if' are quite too much in one sentence. I tell you I have no fears. She may possibly be engaged to some boor; but even then, Harry, I think it could be managed; don't you?"
"I do not think she is engaged; certainly not to any one unworthy of her."
"Then we are on safe ground," said Tom, with hilarity. "She seems a nice girl, and I have no doubt we shall get on capitally together. She shall soon lead a different sort of life from her present one, cooped up in an old brown farm-house, with a dragon to guard her. Won't she open her eyes when we go to the city, and when she guts into New-York society?"
Harry began to open his eyes a little, a very little, to his cousins character; but the force of education was strong, and he had been taught to believe Tom almost perfect: so his invincible good nature was busy in meliorating the harsh views which he was at first disposed to take of his conduct, and in inventing excuses for him. Beside, he had a strong affection for Tom, which he believed to be fully reciprocated, and he did not doubt that Getty would inspire him with the same fervent love which his own heart had once felt, and even now with difficulty suppressed.
He did not pursue the subject, nor return to it again, excepting when compelled to do so by the other, whose exuberant spirits ran wild in contemplation of the fortunate change which he was about to make in his affairs, and who could not cease to wonder that he had never before discovered such an obvious opportunity for his personal advancement. The more he thought of his project, the more deeply his heart was set upon it, and so bountifully was he supplied with that quality of mind which Harry most lacked, self-esteem, that he had no misgivings as to success.
*******
