Hearts Afire - By J. D. Rawden Page 0,4

was not satisfied.

“Then you do not disapprove the meeting?” she asked.

“Yes, I do. I disapprove of any young man in my employment meeting my daughter. Charlotte is too young for lovers, and it is not desirable that she should have attentions from young men who have no intentions. I do not want her to be what is called a belle. Certainly not.”

“But the young men do not think her too young to be loved. I can see that young Sir Edward is very fond of her.”

“Sir Edward is a very fine young man. If Charlotte were to marry him, I should make no objections to Edward. He has some money. He promises to be a good lawyer.

“And Harleigh?”

“Harleigh, Has too many objectionable qualities to be worth considering.”

“Such as?”

“Well, I will only name one, and one for which he is not responsible; but yet it would be insuperable, as far as I am concerned. His father is of low degree of the most pronounced type, and this young man is quite like him. I will have no commoner of the beggarly sort in my family.”

“My family could be considered of low degree, but you married me.”

The young man's faults are in breeding; they are in the blood. Charlotte shall not have anything to do with him.

Why do you speak of such disagreeable things?”

“Disagreeable things, Mean you that our little daughter should marry some good-for-nothing? Look, then, I would rather see her white and cold in the dead-chamber. In a word, I will have no person of objectionable qualities among the Morgan s. There, Today I will speak no more of this matter.”

PREARRANGED LOVE.

Elder Alexander Van Heemskirk was a great man in his sphere. He had a reputation for both riches and godliness, and was scarcely more respected in the market-place than he was in the Middle Kirk. And there was an old tie between the Van Heemskirks and the Morgans,—a tie going back to the days when the Scotch Covenanters and the Netherland Confessors clasped hands as brothers in their “churches under the cross.” Then one of the Van Heemskirks had fled for life from Scotland to Holland, and been sheltered in the house of a Morgan; and from generation to generation the friendship had been continued. So there was much real kindness and very little ceremony between the families.

“Sit down, Elder, near the fire. A glass of hot Hollands will take the chill from you.”

“You are more than kind, Joris, I'll now say that a small glass would be nice, what with the late hour, and the thick mist.”

“Come, come, Elder. Mists in every country you will find, until you reach the New Jerusalem.”

“Very true, but there's a difference in mists. Now, a Scotch mist isn’t at all unhealthy. When I was a lad, I had been out in them for a week straight, and I never felt better.” He had taken off his plaid and hat as he spoke; and he drew the chair set for him in front of the blazing logs, and stretched out his thin legs to the comforting heat.

In the meantime Joanna Van Heemskirk daughter of Elder Van Heemskirk, had gone upstairs; and their footsteps and voices, and Charlotte's rippling laugh, could be heard distinctly through the open doors. Then Madam called, “Joanna!” and the girl came down at once. She was tying on her white apron as she entered the room; and, at a word from her mother, she began to take from the cupboards various Dutch dainties, and East Indian jars of fruits and sweetmeats, and a case of crystal bottles, and some fine lemons. She was a fair, rosy girl, with a kind, cheerful face, a pleasant voice, and a smile that was at once innocent and bright. Her fine light hair was rolled high and backward; and no one could have imagined a dress more suitable to her than the trig dark bodice, the quilted skirt, and the white apron she wore.

Her father and mother watched her with a loving satisfaction; and though Elder Van Heemskirk was discoursing on that memorable dispute between the Caetus and Conferentie parties, which had resulted in the establishment of a new independent Dutch church in America, he was quite sensible of Joanna's presence, and of what she was doing.

“I was aye for the ordaining of American ministers in America,” he said, as he touched the fingertips of his left hand with those of his right; and then in an aside full of deep personal interest,