nd in the midst of the most critical embarrassments of
social life? There is nothing awkward about it; their deception flows
as softly as the snow falls from heaven.

"Yet there are men that have the presumption to expect to get the
better of the Parisian woman!--of the woman who possesses thirty-seven
thousand ways of saying 'No,' and incommensurable variations in saying
'Yes.'"

This is a Frenchman's view of life in a country where women are
trained more systematically for the mere purposes of attraction than
in any other country, and where the pursuit of admiration and the
excitement of winning lovers are represented by its authors
as constituting the main staple of woman's existence. France,
unfortunately, is becoming the great society-teacher of the world.
What with French theatres, French operas, French novels, and the
universal rush of American women for travel, France is becoming so
powerful on American fashionable society, that the things said of the
Parisian woman begin in some cases to apply to some women in America.

Lillie was as precisely the woman here described as if she had been
born and bred in Paris. She had all the thirty-seven thousand ways of
saying "No," and the incommensurable variations in saying "Yes,"
as completely as the best French teaching could have given it. She
possessed, and had used, all that graceful facility, in the story of
herself that she had told John in the days of courtship. Her power
over him was based on a dangerous foundation of unreality. Hence,
during the first few weeks of her wedded life, came a critical scene,
in which she was brought in collision with one of those "pitiless
questions" our author speaks of.

Her wedding-presents, manifold and brilliant, had remained at home, in
the charge of her mother, during the wedding-journey. One bright day,
a few weeks after her arrival in Springdale, the boxes containing the
treasures were landed there; and John, with all enthusiasm, busied
himself with the work of unpacking these boxes, and drawing forth the
treasures.

Now, it so happened that Lillie's maternal grandfather, a nice, pious
old gentleman, had taken the occasion to make her the edifying and
suggestive present of a large, elegantly bound family Bible.

The binding was unexceptionable; and Lillie assigned it a proper place
of honor among her wedding-gear. Alas! she had not looked into it, nor
seen what dangers to her power were lodged between its leaves.

Bu