ould have been so
wicked as to personate her? Susan, I know not what I am saying, but
you know who it is that has turned me into this wild creature.

MISS SUSAN. Oh, Valentine Brown, how could you?

PHOEBE. To weary of Phoebe--patient, lady-like Phoebe--the Phoebe whom
I have lost--to turn from her with a 'Bah, you make me old,' and become
enamoured in a night of a thing like this!

MISS SUSAN. Yes, yes, indeed; yet he has been kind to us also. He has
been to visit us several times.

PHOEBE. In the hope to see her. Was he not most silent and gloomy
when we said she was gone out?

MISS SUSAN. He is infatuate---- (_She hesitates._) Sister, you are
not partial to him still?

PHOEBE. No, Susan, no. I did love him all those years, though I never
spoke of it to you. I put hope aside at once, I folded it up and
kissed it and put it away like a pretty garment I could never wear
again, I but loved to think of him as a noble man. But he is not a
noble man, and Livvy found it out in an hour. The gallant! I flirted
that I might enjoy his fury. Susan, there has been a declaration in
his eyes all to-night, and when he cries 'Adorable Miss Livvy, be
mine,' I mean to answer with an 'Oh, la, how ridiculous you are. You
are much too old--I have been but quizzing you, sir.'

MISS SUSAN. Phoebe, how can you be so cruel?

PHOEBE. Because he has taken from me the one great glory that is in a
woman's life. Not a man's love--she can do without that--but her own
dear sweet love for him. He is unworthy of my love; that is why I can
be so cruel.

MISS SUSAN. Oh, dear.

PHOEBE. And now my triumph is to be denied me, for we must steal away
home before Henrietta and Fanny see us.

MISS SUSAN. Yes, yes.

PHOEBE (_dispirited_). And to-morrow we must say that Livvy has gone
back to her father, for I dare keep up this deception no longer.
Susan, let us go.

(_They are going dejectedly, but are arrested by the apparition of_
MISS HENRIETTA _and_ MISS FANNY _peeping into the tent_. PHOEBE _has
just time to signify to her sister that she will confess all and beg
for mercy, when the intruders speak._)

Miss HENRIETTA (_not triumphant but astounded_). You, Miss Phoebe?

PHOEBE (_with bowed head_). Yes.

MISS FANNY. How amazing! You do not deny, ma'am, that you are Miss
Phoebe?

PHOEBE (_making confession_). Yes, Fanny, I am Miss Phoebe.

(_To her bewilderment_ HENRIETTA _and_ FANNY _exchange ashamed
gla