uld necessarily respond by falling in love with her. She would
have to take her chance of that; but I 'm sure, if he were a gentleman,
she need have no fear of his thinking unworthily of her. If I had spoken
to Dick in that way, even if he had never wanted to marry me, I know he
would have had a soft spot for me in his heart all the rest of his life,
out of which even his wife would not have quite crowded me. Why, how do
we think of men whom we have refused? Do we despise them? Do we ridicule
them? Some girls may, but they are not ladies. A low fellow might laugh
at a woman who revealed a fondness for him which he did not return; but
a gentleman, never. Her secret would be safe with him."

"Girls!" It was the voice of Mrs. Elliott speaking from the upper hall.
"Do you know how late it is? It is after one o'clock."

"I suppose we might as well go to bed," said Lucy. "There's no use
sitting up to wait for women to get their rights. They won't get them
to-night, I dare say; though, mark my word, some day they will."

"This affair of yours may come out all right yet," she said hopefully,
as they went upstairs together. "If it does not, you can console
yourself with thinking that people in general, and especially girls,
never know what is good for them till afterward. Do you remember that
summer I was at the beach, what a ninny I made of myself over that
little Mr. Parker? How providential it was for me that he did not
reciprocate. It gives me the cold shivers when I think what might have
become of me if he' had proposed."

At the door of her room Lucy said again: "Remember, you are to come to
me in New York for a long visit soon. Perhaps you will find there are
other people in the world then."

Maud smiled absently, and kissed her good-night. She seemed preoccupied,
and did not appear to have closely followed what her lively friend was
saying.

The following afternoon, as she was walking home after seeing Lucy on
the cars, she met a gentleman who lifted his hat to her. It was Arthur
Burton. His office was on the one main street of the small New England
city which is the scene of these events, and when out walking or
shopping Maud often met him. There was therefore nothing at all
extraordinary in the fact of their meeting. What was extraordinary was
its discomposing effect upon her on this particular afternoon. She had
been absorbed a moment before in a particularly brown study, taking no
more notice of surrounding obj