litic weakness, I am well
aware; for under the heel of your iron will your heart would not even
struggle. But unfortunately I am an impulsive, foolish, human Roscoe,
not a systematically organized, well-regulated, and unerring Palma."
His cousin bowed complacently.

"Be kind enough to hand me the cigars. This is defective; will not
smoke."

He leisurely lighted one, and resumed: "While on the cars to-day I
read an article which contained a passage to this effect, and I offer
it for your future reflection: 'That man, I think, has had a liberal
education, who has been so trained in his youth, that his body is the
ready servant of his will, and does with ease and pleasure all the
work that as a mechanism it is capable of; whose intellect is a
clear, cold, logic engine, with all its parts of equal strength and
in smooth working order; ready like a steam-engine to be turned to
their kind of work.' Elliott, young gentlemen should put their hearts
in their pockets, until they fully decide before what shrine it would
be most remunerative to offer them. The last time we dined at Judge
Van Zandt's, certainly not more than three months ago, you were all
devotion to his second daughter, Clara of the ruby lips and _cedre_
hair."

"Clara Van Zandt, no thank you! I would not give Regina's pure face
and sweet violet eyes for all the other feminine flesh in New York!"

Had his attention been fixed just then upon Mr. Palma, he might have
detected the sudden flash in his black eyes, and the nervous
clenching of his right hand that rested on the arm of the chair; but
the younger man was absorbed by his own emotions, and very soon his
cousin rose.

"In future we will not discuss this folly. At present, please
recollect that my ward's face has not yet been offered in the
matrimonial market; consequently your bid is premature. Those papers
I spoke of must be prepared as early as possible in the morning, and
submitted to me for revision. Be careful in copying the record. Have
a cigar? I shall not be back before dark."

The happiest hours Regina had known during her residence in New York
had been spent in the room where she now sat; a basement room with
low ceiling, and faded olive-tinted walls. The furniture was limited
to an old-fashioned square table of mahogany, rich with that colour
which comes only from the mellowing touch of age, and polished until
it reflected the goblet of white and crimson phlox, which Regina had
placed in th