e maxim that what men of sense
disapprove, a woman--as a rule--had better not do. And for a
while there were not men of sense at hand to give her counsel.

Mr. Falkirk looked on from too great a distance to point his
strictures; Gotham's grumbles over the serenades and the
cavaliers only helped the excitement. And since Mr. Falkirk
would not let her fling her written thanks out of the window,
the _spoken_ thanks followed, as a matter of course, and
effected quite as much.

And yet, you will say, no harm came, and everything was as it
should be. Well, there are some who plunge through the mud
ankle-deep; and there are others that got but over shoe; and
here and there one that crosses on tiptoe; but you would
rather that they all chose a better road. And intoxication is
not a good thing, whatever may be the means thereto; and the
sweet, fresh years of which Dr. Maryland had spoken, were
quite too precious to be spun off to the music of Strauss, or
wilted down by late hours, or given up wholly to hearing that
Miss Kennedy was the one of all the world. Not so do natures
enlarge and characters develop to their fairest proportions;
not so do souls grow strong and noble for the coming work of
life.

Kitty Fisher was not exactly jealous of all this--or had too
much sense to shew it; but deep in her heart she did wish she
could dismount Wych Hazel from her pedestal, that comparisons
might be made on level ground. Kitty would not have been
timid, for the world; and yet the shy blushes which came as
freely as ever to Miss Kennedy's cheeks did somehow give her a
pang. And while nothing could have bought off her daring
speech and behaviour, she yet knew it _was_ a pretty thing to
have the deference which always approached the young lady of
Chickaree.

'I must get that out of her,' she said to herself. 'She's
bound to give it up. Wait till I get her fairly into the
German!'

And so far she succeeded. Miss Kennedy did get 'fairly in,'--
but as yet the rest of the plan had failed. Hazel danced, and
led, and followed, in the wildest gaiety, within certain
limits; beyond them she would not go; meeting all Kitty
Fisher's proposals with a look of incredulous disgust and
surprise that generally cut short the business for that time.
And gentlemen who stood by laughed and applauded; and if Hazel
had known just _why_ they clapped hands, and just what she was
avoiding, she would have wanted to stand no longer in their
neighbourhood