vidential for which of them?" I asked, stabbing my sheet of music
paper with the pen, while I tried in vain to think how many eighth
notes would fill a measure.

"For both; though I was really thinking of Mr. Morton. His business is
one that peculiarly requires capital; then again he has many interests
in Philadelphia, and there is that beautiful place in Germantown with
house, stable, horses, and gardens all ready for him."

"And the girl, too; don't forget her," I responded. "Though some men
don't care for these ready-to-wear wives; they prefer to look about
and to choose."

"He would have to look a long distance before he found any one to
compare with Miss Darling, either in beauty or suitableness," said
Cousin Sarah, thereby injecting the first drop of poison in my blood
and starting me on the downward path toward nervous prostration.

"Miss Darling is a man's woman," she continued, unconsciously giving
me another push; "the type with which neither you nor I have anything
in common, but which we know to be irresistible."

Now Cousin Sarah is fifty-five, thin, angular, erect, uncompromising.
I love and respect her, but do not care to be lumped with her in
affairs of the heart, at least not for thirty years to come; and
although I think it is disgusting to be labeled a "man's woman" it is
insufferable to be told that one is _not_!

"I can see Amy Darling in my mind's eye," I ventured; "blonde, dimply,
fluffy as to head, willowy as to figure so as to cling the better,
blue eyes swimming in unshed tears, and a manner so exquisitely
feminine that she makes all the other women in her vicinity appear
independent and mannish. But not all men care for pets, Cousin
Sarah--some of them prefer companions."

"A pet _is_ a companion," remarked Cousin Sarah casually as she left
the room, giving me thereby an entirely new and most unpleasant
thought.

I have known Richard Morton for many months, and although I have met
him very often at other places, he has been a constant visitor at our
house. If he has had any resemblance to a possible suitor why hasn't
Cousin Sarah discovered it? Is _she_ deaf and blind, or have my ears
and eyes played me false? Am I so undesirable that it would never
cross her mind that a man might fall in love with me? Hardly, for she
is well aware that several men have expressed their willingness to
annex my poverty-stricken charms.

As I look back upon the weeks that followed the interview with Co