will be other sore hearts besides Sallie's at her wedding. I had
heard before that Miss Culpepper was quite desperate over Osborne, but, as
she was a girl whom everybody thought a lady, I had no idea that she had
gone so far as Sallie says. Osborne probably didn't object to being made
love to. A man of his stamp would not be over-refined. Strange, now,
Sallie does not love Osborne herself, but she promptly hates every other
girl who dares to do it. Aren't girls queer?

Then there are a score of men who will gnash their teeth for Sallie--so
many men love these Sallie Coxes.

Frankie Taliaferro, the Kentucky beauty, who is staying with her this
winter, tells me that Sallie has had several dreadful scenes with
discarded suitors--that one said he would forbid the banns, and another
threatened to shoot himself if she really married Osborne.

I wonder how many marriages there really are where both are perfectly free
to marry. I mean, no secret entanglements on either side, no other man
wanting the bride, no girl bitterly jealous of her. I never heard of
one--not among the people _I_ know, at least.

Oh, Tabby, think of all the fusses people keep out of who promptly settle
down at the appointed time and become peaceful old maids. How sensible we
were, Tabby, you and Missis.

But doesn't it seem to you that people marry from very mixed motives? I
used to have an idea--when I was painfully young, of course--that they
married because they were so fortunate as to fall in love with each other.
Are you quite sure that foolish notion is out of your head too?

VI

THE LONELY CHILDHOOD OF A CLEVER CHILD

"Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood?... To be great is to be
misunderstood."

I have been away since early last summer, and consequently never had seen
Flossy's new baby until the newness had worn off, and it had arrived at
the dignity of a backbone, and had left its wobbly period far behind. I am
in mortal terror of a very little baby. It feels so much like a sponge,
yet lacks the sponge's recuperative qualities. I am always afraid if I
dent it the dents will stay in. You know they don't in a sponge.

As soon as I came home, of course I went to see Flossy's baby, and was
very much disconcerted to discover that she had named it for me. I was
afraid, I remember, that she would want to name the first girl for me, but
she did not. She named her after Rac