nably? Well, Asbury gave her the same engagement ring he gave me, and
she doesn't know it. Rich, isn't it? Here we are at the cooking-school. I
am so glad I can slam a carriage-door without being rude. It is such a
relief to one's overcharged feelings."

Tabby, dear, if your head ever spun round and round at some of the
confidences I have bestowed upon you, I can sympathize with you, for, as I
went into that class, my feelings were so wrenched and twisted that I was
as limp as cooked macaroni. You will excuse the simile, but that was one
of the articles at cooking-school to-day, and when the teacher took it up
on a fork, it did express my state of mind so exquisitely that I cannot
forbear to use it.

Sallie Cox! Well, I am amazed. Who would think that that bright, saucy,
clever little flirt, who rides on the crest of the wave always, could have
such a heart history? And Percival of all men! I wonder what he would say
if he knew. I don't know what to think about her marrying Payson Osborne.
The last thing she whispered to me as we came out of cooking-school was,
"Don't be too sorry for me because I am going to marry him. Believe me, it
is the very best thing that could happen to me."

I am very fond of the girl to-night. What a pity it is that everybody does
not know her as she really is! No one understands her, and she has flirted
so outrageously with most of the men that the girls' friendship for her is
very hollow. A few, of whom Alice Asbury is one, dare to show this quite
plainly, and of course Sallie doesn't like it. She pretends not to care
for women's friendship, but she does. She would love to be friendly with
all the girls, but they remember the misery she has made them suffer, and
won't have it.

Still, there is no doubt that she is marrying the man most of them want,
so that again she triumphs. But, unless I am much mistaken, even as Mrs.
Payson Osborne it will take her a long time to recover her place with the
women which she has lost by having so many of their sweethearts and
brothers in love with her.

Ah, Tabby, what a deal of secret misery there is in the world! Everybody
will envy Sallie Cox and think that she is the luckiest girl, and Sallie
will smile and pretend--for what other course is left to her, and who can
blame women who pretend under such circumstances? Perhaps there are
reasons just as good for many other pretenders in this world. Who knows?
We would be gentler if we knew more.

There