The old lady colored up, with the quick, vivid rose-tint of sudden

and real pleasure that rarely outlives early girlhood, when the

first respondent to the breakfast-bell proved to be her Frederic's

god-son.

"You are always punctual! I wish you would teach the good habit to

some other people," she said, after answering his cordial

"good-morning."

"None of us deserve to be praised on that score, to-day," rejoined

he, looking at his watch. "I did not awake until the dressing-bell

rang. Our riding-party was out late last night. The extreme beauty

of the evening beguiled us into going further than we intended, when

we set out."

"Yes! you young folks are falling into shockingly irregular

habits--take unprecedented liberties with me and with Time!" shaking

her head. "If Winston do not return soon, you will set my mild rule

entirely at defiance."

Chilton laughed--but was serious the next instant.

"I expected confidently to meet him at this visit," he said,

glancing at the door to guard against being overheard. "Should he

not return to-day, ought I not, before leaving this to-morrow, to

write to him, since he is legally his sister's guardian? It is, you

and she tell me, a mere form, but one that should not be dispensed

with any longer."

"That may be so. Winston is rigorous in requiring what is due to his

position--is, in some respects, a fearful formalist. But he will

hardly oppose your wishes and Mabel's. He has her real happiness at

heart, I believe, although he is, at times, an over-strict and

exacting guardian--perhaps to counterbalance my indulgent policy. He

is unlike any other young man I know."

"His sister is very much attached to him."

"She loves him--I was about to say, preposterously. Her implicit

belief in and obedience to him have increased his self-confidence

into a dogmatic assertion of infallibility. But"--fearing she might

create an unfortunate impression upon the listener's mind--"Winston

has grounds for his good opinion of himself. His character is

unblemished--his principles and aims are excellent. Only"--relapsing

hopelessly into the confidential strain in which most of the

conference had been carried--"between ourselves, my dear Frederic, I

am never quite easy with these patterns to the rest of human-kind. I

should even prefer a tiny vein of depravity to such very rectangular

virtue."

"You are seldom ill at ease, if human perfection is all that renders

you uncomfortable," responded Frederic. "There are not many in whose

composition one cannot trace, not a tiny, but a broad vein of Adamic

nature. What a delicious morning!" he added, sauntering to the

window.




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