flitting Newport fair ones. When they, as in duty bound, said that
they saw nobody whom they cared about now she was married, that she
was the only woman on earth for them,--she rapped their knuckles
briskly with her fan, and bid them mind their manners. All this mode
of proceeding gave her an immense success.

[Illustration: "And would sometimes smoke one purely for good
company."]

But, as we said before, all this was talked about; and ladies in their
letters, chronicling the events of the passing hour, sent the tidings
up and down the country; and so Miss Letitia Ferguson got a letter
from Mrs. Wilcox with full pictures and comments; and she brought the
same to Grace Seymour.

"I dare say," said Letitia, "these things have been exaggerated; they
always are: still it does seem desirable that your brother should go
there, and be with her."

"He can't go and be with her," said Grace, "without neglecting his
business, already too much neglected. Then the house is all in
confusion under the hands of painters; and there is that young artist
up there,--very elegant gentleman,--giving orders to right and left,
every one of which involves further confusion and deeper expense; for
my part, I see no end to it. Poor John has got 'the Old Man of the
Sea' on his back in the shape of this woman; and I expect she'll be
the ruin of him yet. I can't want to break up his illusion about her;
because, what good will it do? He has married her, and must live with
her; and, for Heaven's sake, let the illusion last while it can! I'm
going to draw off, and leave them to each other; there's no other
way."

"You are, Gracie?"

"Yes; you see John came to me, all stammering and embarrassment, about
this making over of the old place; but I put him at ease at once. 'The
most natural thing in the world, John,' said I. 'Of course Lillie has
her taste; and it's her right to have the house arranged to suit it.'
And then I proposed to take all the old family things, and furnish
the house that I own on Elm Street, and live there, and let John and
Lillie keep house by themselves. You see there is no helping the
thing. Married people must be left to themselves; nobody can help
them. They must make their own discoveries, fight their own battles,
sink or swim, together; and I have determined that not by the winking
of an eye will I interfere between them."

"Well, but do you think John wants you to go?"

"He feels badly about it; and yet I have c