"A SLY, artful, treacherous jade?" articulated Mrs. Sutton,

energetically. "I have no patience with her. And they say she is so

overjoyed at her conquest that she trumpets the engagement

everywhere. Such shameless carrying on I never heard of. If she ever

crosses my path I shall treat her to some wholesome truths."

"What good would that do, aunt?" asked Mabel Dorrance, without

raising her head from her sewing. "And what has she done that should

incense you or any one else against her? She was free to choose a

husband, and we have no right to cavil at her choice. I hope she

will be very happy. I used to love her--we loved each other very

fondly once. There are some excellent traits in Rosa's character,

and when she is once married she will be less volatile."

"Don't you believe it. Her flightiness and insincerity are ingrain!

I believed in her once myself--she had such beguiling ways, it was

hard to disapprove of anything she said or did. But I was secretly

aware, all the time, that there was a radical defect in her

composition. A woman who has been engaged, or as good as engaged, to

six or eight different men, cannot retain much purity of mind or

strength of affection. I heard you tell her yourself once that such

unscrupulous flirtation and bandying of hearts were profane touches

that rubbed the down from the peach."

"That was the extravagant talk of a silly, romantic girl," replied

Mabel, with a smile that changed to a sigh before the sentence was

finished. "I was somewhat given to lecturing other people, in those

days, upon subjects of which I knew little or nothing. Nine men out

of ten care little how roughly the peach has been rubbed, provided

the flavor is not injured to their taste. It is only once in a great

while that you meet with one whose palate is so nice that he can

detect the difference between fruit that has been hawked through the

market and that just picked from the tree. First love is a myth at

which rational people laugh."

"Perhaps so," said Mrs. Sutton dubiously.

In view of the circumstances of Mabel's marriage, she felt that it

behooved her to be circumspect in condemnation of transferred

affections.

"But that does not alter the fact of Rosa Tazewell's infamous

behavior to Alfred Branch and others of her beaux. Isn't the poor

fellow drinking himself into his grave, all through his

disappointment? And here she is going to be as honored a wife as if

she had never perjured herself, or ruined an honest, loving man's

prospects for life!"




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