asant, so full of common
sense, and so completely intelligent! "I like you," she had said,
"because I feel that you will not think that you ought to make love
to me. There is nothing I hate so much as the idea that a young man
and a young woman can't be acquainted with each other without some
such tomfoolery as that." This had exactly expressed his own feeling.
Nothing could be so pleasant as his intimacy with Isabel Boncassen.

Mrs. Boncassen seemed to be a homely person, with no desire either
to speak, or to be spoken to. She went out but seldom, and on those
rare occasions did not in any way interfere with her daughter. Mr.
Boncassen filled a prouder situation. Everybody knew that Miss
Boncassen was in England because it suited Mr. Boncassen to spend
many hours in the British Museum. But still the daughter hardly
seemed to be under control from the father. She went alone where she
liked; talked to those she liked; and did what she liked. Some of the
young ladies of the day thought that there was a good deal to be said
in favour of the freedom which she enjoyed.

There is however a good deal to be said against it. All young ladies
cannot be Miss Boncassens, with such an assurance of admirers as to
be free from all fear of loneliness. There is a comfort for a young
lady in having a pied-a-terre to which she may retreat in case of
need. In American circles, where girls congregate without their
mothers, there is a danger felt by young men that if a lady be
once taken in hand, there will be no possibility of getting rid of
her,--no mamma to whom she may be taken and under whose wings she may
be dropped. "My dear," said an old gentleman the other day walking
through an American ball-room, and addressing himself to a girl whom
he knew well,--"My dear--" But the girl bowed and passed on, still
clinging to the arm of the young man who accompanied her. But the
old gentleman was cruel, and possessed of a determined purpose. "My
dear," said he again, catching the young man tight by the collar and
holding him fast. "Don't be afraid; I've got him; he shan't desert
you; I'll hold him here till you have told me how your father does."
The young lady looked as if she didn't like it, and the sight of her
misery gave rise to a feeling that, after all, mammas perhaps may be
a comfort.

But in her present phase of life Miss Boncassen suffered no
misfortune of this kind. It had become a privilege to be allowed to
attend upon Miss Bonca