y giving little gifts to her, "why,
then--then," thought Amy, and she was thinking so at the very moment when
she sat with Gabriel and Ellen, talking in a half wild, lively,
incoherent way, "why, then--then," and her eyes leaped across the room
and fell, as it were, into the arms of Lawrence Newt's, which caressed
them with soft light, and half-laughed "You came again, did you?"--"why,
then--then," and Amy buried her face in the cool, damp roses, and did not
dare to look again, "then she had better go and be a Sister of Charity."

CHAPTER XXIX.

MR. ABEL NEWT, GRAND STREET.

As the world returned to town and the late autumnal festivities began,
the handsome person and self-possessed style of Mr. Abel Newt became the
fashion. Invitations showered upon him. Mrs. Dagon proclaimed every where
that there had been nobody so fascinating since the days of the brilliant
youth of Aaron Burr, whom she declared that she well remembered, and
added, that if she could say it without blushing, or if any reputable
woman ought to admit such things, she should confess that in her younger
days she had received flowers and even notes from that fascinating man.

"I don't deny, my dears, that he was a naughty man. But I can tell you
one thing, all the naughty men are not in disgrace yet, though he is.
And, if you please, Miss Fanny, with all your virtuous sniffs, dear, and
all your hugging of men in waltzing, darling, Colonel Burr was not sent
to Coventry because he was naughty. He might have been naughty all the
days of his life, and Mrs. Jacob Van Boozenberg and the rest of 'em would
have been quite as glad to have him at their houses. No, no, dears,
society doesn't punish men for being naughty--only women. I am older
than you, and I have observed that society likes spice in character.
It doesn't harm a man to have stories told about him."

No ball was complete without Abel Newt. Ladies, meditating parties,
engaged him before they issued a single invitation. At dinners he was
sparkling and agreeable, with tact enough not to extinguish the other
men, who yet felt his superiority and did not half like it. They imitated
his manner; but what was ease or gilded assurance in him was open
insolence, or assurance with the gilt rubbed off, in them. The charm
and secret of his manner lay in an utter devotion, which said to every
woman, "There's not a woman in the world who can resist me, except you.
Have you the heart to do it?" Of course