e; "in making love, Ferdora, you have the
prowess of ten men."

"Do you speak from experience, now, Miss Goodwin?" asked Woodward,
rather dryly.

"O! no," replied Alice, "I have only his own word for it."

"Only his own word. Miss Goodwin! Do you imply by that, that his own
word requires corroboration?"

Alice blushed again, and felt confused.

"I assure you, Mr. Woodward," said O'Connor, "that when my word requires
corroboration, I always corroborate it myself."

"But, according to Miss Goodwin's account of it, sir, that's not likely
to add much to its authenticity."

"Well, Mr. Woodward," said O'Connor, with the greatest suavity of
manner, "I'll tell you my method under such circumstances; whenever I
meet a gentleman that doubts my word, I always make him eat his onion.

"There's nothing new or wonderful in that," replied the other; "it has
been my own practice during life."

"What? to eat your own words!" exclaimed O'Connor, purposely mistaking
him; "very windy feeding, faith. Upon my honor and conscience, in that
case, your complaint must be nothing else but the colic, and not love at
all. Try peppermint wather, Mr. Woodward."

Alice saw at once, but could not account for the fact, that the
worthy gentlemen were cutting at each other, and the timid girl became
insensibly alarmed at the unaccountable sharpness of their brief
encounter. She looked with an anxious countenance, first at one, and
then at the other, but scarcely knew what to say. Woodward, however, who
was better acquainted with the usages of society, and the deference due
to the presence of women, than the brusque, but somewhat fiery Milesian,
now said, with a smile and a bow to that gentleman:

"Sir, I submit; I am vanquished. If you are as successful in love as you
are in banter, I should not wish to enter the list against you.

"Faith, sir," replied O'Connor, with a poor-humored laugh, "if your
sword is as sharp as your wit, you'd be an ugly customer to meet in a
quarrel."

O'Connor, who had been there for some time, now rose to take his leave,
at which Alice felt rather satisfied. Indeed, she could not avoid
observing that, whatever the cause of it might be, there seemed to exist
some secret feeling of dislike between them, which occasioned her no
inconsiderable apprehension. O'Connor she knew was kind-hearted and
generous, but, at the same time, as quick as gunpowder in taking and
resenting an insult. On the other hand, she certainly