ower of self-knowledge.
She was, my dear sir, what you suppose the true woman to be,--a bundle
of blind instincts; and among these the strongest was that of property
in her husband, and power over him. She had lived in her power over
men; it was her field of ambition. She knew them thoroughly. Women are
called ivy; and the ivy has a hundred little fingers in every inch of
its length, that strike at every flaw and crack and weak place in the
strong wall they mean to overgrow; and so had Lillie. She saw, at a
glance, that the sober, thoughtful, Christian life of Springdale was
wholly opposed to the life she wanted to lead, and in which John was
to be her instrument. She saw that, if such women as Grace and Rose
had power with him, she should not have; and her husband should
be hers alone. He should do her will, and be her subject,--so she
thought, smiling at herself as she looked in the looking-glass, and
then curled herself peacefully and languidly down in the corner of
the sofa, and drew forth the French novel that was her usual Sunday
companion.

Lillie liked French novels. There was an atmosphere of things in them
that suited her. The young married women had lovers and admirers; and
there was the constant stimulus of being courted and adored, under the
safe protection of a good-natured "_mari_."

In France, the flirting is all done after marriage, and the young girl
looks forward to it as her introduction to a career of conquest. In
America, so great is our democratic liberality, that we think of
uniting the two systems. We are getting on in that way fast. A
knowledge of French is beginning to be considered as the pearl of
great price, to gain which, all else must be sold. The girls must go
to the French theatre, and be stared at by French _debauchees_, who
laugh at them while they pretend they understand what, thank Heaven,
they cannot. Then we are to have series of French novels, carefully
translated, and puffed and praised even by the religious press,
written by the corps of French female reformers, which will show them
exactly how the naughty French women manage their cards; so that, by
and by, we shall have the latest phase of eclecticism,--the union
of American and French manners. The girl will flirt till twenty _a
l'Americaine_, and then marry and flirt till forty _a la Francaise_.
This was about Lillie's plan of life. Could she hope to carry it out
in Springdale?

CHAPTER VIII.

_SPINDLEWOOD_.