He never spoke of her again, or referred, in the most distant

manner, to his visit at Ridgeley. The omission was an agreeable one

to Rosa for several reasons. Silence, she believed, was to oblivion

as a means to an end. Judging from herself, she adopted the theory

that people were apt to forget what they never talked of themselves,

nor heard mentioned by others. Furthermore, she was relieved from

the necessity of concocting diplomatic evasions, dexterously

skirting the truth, to say nothing of plump falsehoods. These last

cost her conscience some unpleasant twinges. To avoid narrating in

full what had happened was a work of art. A downright lie was a

stroke of heavy business, unsuited to her airy genius--and when the

Aylett-Chilton complication was upon the tapis, it was difficult to

avoid undertaking such.

For three weeks, then, Mr. Frederic Chilton and the Virginian belle

visited concert, theatre, and assembly-room in company, sat side by

side in the spectators' gallery of House and Senate chamber, walked

in daylight along the broad avenues from one magnificent distance to

another, and on home-evenings--which were not many--chatted together

familiarly, the well-pleased Masons thought confidentially, by the

fireside in the family parlor. It must not be inferred from their

constant intercourse that he had the field entirely to himself.

Gallants of divers pretensions--first-class, mediocre, and

contemptible--considered with a practical eye to "settlement,"

hovered about the fascinating witch as moths about a gas-burner, and

had no citable cause of complaint of non-appreciation, inasmuch as

she shed equal light upon all, save one. "My very old friend, Mr.

Chilton," she was wont to denominate him in conversation with those

who inwardly called themselves fools for their jealousy of a man of

whom she spoke thus frankly, with never a stammer or blush; yet they

acknowledged to themselves all the while that they were both

suspicious and envious of his superior advantages. However backward

Frederic may have been in the beginning to monopolize the notice and

time of his "sisterly friend," he was not an insensate block, who

could not perceive and value the compliment paid him by her

partiality--ever apparent, but never unmaidenly. Impute it to

whatever motive he might, the distinction titillated his vanity,

touched, at least, the outermost covering of his heart. It might be

pity, it might be pleasant, mournful memories of other days--it was

most likely of all a sincere platonic affection, for one with tastes

and feelings akin to hers that gave lustre to her eyes, and gentle

meaning to her smile when he drew near. At any rate, it would be

churlish not to accept the preference these conveyed, and to like

her and his position as her chosen knight better every day; it was

inevitable that he should marvel--not without melancholy-at the

flight of time that brought so soon the day of parting.




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