As Fanny left Rose Hill with the family next day, her
heart beat high with the hope of—she scarcely knew what
Harry's last words had been more than kind—they were confidential
and tender. She felt that his good opinion had
been partly regained, and she looked forward, if not to the
postponement of his voyage, at least to such a parting as
would not leave her in such a painful state of mind as she

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had suffered the last two days. She saw the refusal to answer
his two questions had surprised him; but she depended
upon his perceiving (without being told) that she was
under some necessity in not doing so. She was thus the
gayest of the whole party, and Mrs. Lennox, who talked it
over with her husband, quite agreed with him in the conclusion
that to attempt to understand lovers and their ways
was a hopeless task.

They reached town, at length, on a bright evening, and
preferred to walk home, looking (particularly Fanny) to see
Harry each moment coming to meet them. But Harry was
not to be seen, either on their way home or when they arrived
there. At length he made his appearance, greeted
with more than his accustomed warmth each individual of
the family he was about to be so soon separated from, including
in his heartiest welcome Mrs. Elton. To Miss
Elton he bowed stiffly, without offering his hand or meeting
her inquiring look. Thus, in one moment, all the poor
girl's aërial hopes vanished into nothing.

Fanny spent part of the evening there, but the same coldness
was persevered in, till she felt that if she had appeared
cruel and capricious, he was much more so. Complaining
of a headache, by no means a feigned one, she withdrew
early with her mother and father, who had hastened to meet
them, and sought the longed-for solitude and darkness of
her own pillow: imploring aid from Him who always gives
to those who ask, she schooled herself to resignation and
peace.

The next day she did not go at all to Mr. Lennox's, and
Tuesday also passed without her yielding to the solicitation
of her mother to pay them a visit.

In the evening Frank and Mary came round, to say that
they were all going to accompany the packet-ship out to
sea as far as Sandy Hook in the steamboat, and to see
Harry fairly off. As strong objections as the poor girl
could or dared to make against this trial, she did urge, but
without success. She positively must go. She had never
seen a packet-ship at sea, or the sea itself at all; she had
never seen the Hook; and Harry would be so disappointed
if the whole of the Rose Hill party did not honour his embarcation;
and various other irresistible reasons were so
persevered in by Mary, that she was obliged to acquiesce,
though she felt she was destined to undergo a terrible ordeal.

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