garded her with a look of anxiety and tenderness;
and at length, seeing her still abstaining from the
suspended meal, exclaimed:

"Eat, child, eat: fasting is bad for the young."

"I have no appetite, except for information," was
mournfully replied; and the elder again regarded her
affectionately; then with subdued earnestness, and
in an expostulatory tone, rejoined:

"Be pacified, Amanda; for curiosity often brings
us care. Let well alone, and it will continue to be
well with you; but why should you thus persist to
peer into the bottom of your past; as it were, asking
the fashion of your swaddling clothes? Fie! you
are too impatient; too importunate. Pray, no longer
question me against my will, making enquiries that
may not be answered. Live without asking why
you live. No more of this. Does not your guardian
love you as though you were his child; and is he not
wiser than yourself; to judge of what knowledge is
for your welfare? You ask me, why this mystery
about your birth. Amanda, we move midst mystery
from birth to death, and they who seek to solve it
seek for sorrow."

"These words disturb me more than your past
silence," exclaimed the younger. "What horror is
there to reveal touching my origin, that you yet
dare not shew me?"

"I dare not break your guardian's command," re-
plied the elder, firmly.

"Neither can I control a natural desire to know
what so nearly concerns me," retorted the other.
"I beg of you to solve this mystery of my birth.
It is my right, my birthright, to know who gave me

[[16]]

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v?