re all right enough, for mother didn't object and I got you
both home before daylight. Uncle is notional about such things, so I
shouldn't mind, for we had a jolly time and we were none the worse for
it."

"Indeed we were, every one of us! Aunt Clara hasn't gotten over her cold
yet. I slept all the next day, and you looked like a ghost, for you'd
been out every night for weeks, I think."

"Oh, nonsense! Everyone does it during the season, and you'll get used
to the pace very soon," began Charlie, bent on making her go, for he
was in his element in a ballroom and never happier than when he had his
pretty cousin on his arm.

"Ah! But I don't want to get used to it, for it costs too much in the
end. I don't wish to get used to being whisked about a hot room by men
who have taken too much wine, to turn day into night, wasting time that
might be better spent, and grow into a fashionable fast girl who can't
get along without excitement. I don't deny that much of it is pleasant,
but don't try to make me too fond of gaiety. Help me to resist what I
know is hurtful, and please don't laugh me out of the good habits Uncle
has tried so hard to give me."

Rose was quite sincere in her appeal, and Charlie knew she was right,
but he always found it hard to give up anything he had set his heart on,
no matter how trivial, for the maternal indulgence which had harmed the
boy had fostered the habit of self-indulgence, which was ruining the
man. So when Rose looked up at him, with a very honest desire to save
him as well as herself from being swept into the giddy vortex which
keeps so many young people revolving aimlessly, till they go down or
are cast upon the shore, wrecks of what they might have been, he gave a
shrug and answered briefly: "As you please. I'll bring you home as early
as you like, and Effie Waring shall take your place in the German. What
flowers shall I send you?"

Now, that was an artful speech of Charlie's, for Miss Waring was a fast
and fashionable damsel who openly admired Prince Charming and had given
him the name. Rose disliked her and was sure her influence was bad, for
youth made frivolity forgivable, wit hid want of refinement, and beauty
always covers a multitude of sins in a man's eyes. At the sound of
Effie's name, Rose wavered, and would have yielded but for the memory
of the "first mate's" last words. She did desire to "keep a straight
course"; so, though the current of impulse set strongly in a southe