Rosa "had out" her fit of crying when he went away, betaking herself

to her chamber and locking the door that her aunt might not surprise

her while the traces of tears disfigured her cheeks. But she was

anything but broken-hearted, and only slightly sore in spirit in the

retrospect of what had ensued upon her communication to the

discarded lover. He had, indeed, given more evidence of his

unconquered passion for Mabel than she had expected. His undisguised

pleasure in renewed companionship with herself; his excellent

spirits during the greater part of the evening; his unembarrassed

reply to her aunt's malapropos observation, and fluent chat upon

other themes, had misled her into the hope that the ungenerous and

uncivil conduct of the Ayletts had disgusted and alienated him from

sister, no less than from brother. It was a disappointment to

discover that it cost him a terrible effort to pronounce Mabel's

name, while the abrupt intelligence of her marriage had distracted

him to incoherent ravings, which had nearly amounted to curses upon

the authors of his pain.

"And all for a woman who could bring herself, after being engaged to

Frederic Chilton, to marry that dolt of a Dorrance!" she said,

indignantly. "I wonder if he would have been consoled or chagrined

had I painted the portrait of the man who had superseded him. It is

as well that I did not make the experiment. He would be magnanimous

enough when he cooled down--which he will do by to-morrow

morning--to pity her, and that is next to the last thing I want him

to do. Thank goodness! the denouement is over, and the topic an

interdicted one from this time forth. Now for the verification or

refutation of the saying that a heart is most easily caught in the

rebound. There was some jargon we learned at school about the angle

of incidence being equal to that of reflection. You see, my dearly

beloved self," nodding with returning sauciness at her image in the

mirror before which she was combing her hair, "I undertake this

business in the spirit of philosophical investigation."

She needed to keep her courage up by these and the like whimsical

conceits, when the forenoon of the next day passed away without a

glimpse of Mr. Chilton. He had not yet left his card for the Masons,

nor called to inquire after her health, when the summons sounded to

the five o'clock dinner. A horrible apprehension seized and devoured

her heart by the time the dessert was brought on, and there were no

signs of his appearance. He had, ashamed to meet her after last

night's exposure of his weakness, or dreading the power of the

reminiscences the sight of her would awaken, left the city without

coming to say "Farewell." That is, she had driven him from her

forever!




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