, and for the present only moderately pretty. I think I tried in
my day-dreams to form an ideal of what a lover's mental and moral
attributes should be without ever endowing the abstraction with a head.
I found a happiness in doing so much,--akin, I fancy, to that of the
votary who kneels before a shrine of which the doors are closed. It was
the consciousness of a great possible happiness that thrilled me, rather
than any definite vision.

When Miss Jenks left us I was a well educated girl for my age. What I
knew I knew thoroughly, and the wishes of both my aunts had been
respected. Perhaps the most striking circumstances connected with my
bringing up, however, were that at eighteen I had no idea I was the
heiress to an enormous fortune, and that I could pass young men in the
street without self-consciousness. Strangely, too, I had grown up
without having formed an intimacy with any girls of my own age. I have
never quite been able to decide whether the ability I thus acquired to
think for and by myself was more valuable than the happiness that
results from such friendships; yet I have never distinctly regretted not
having made a confidant among my contemporaries.

II.

Miss Jenks went away in October, and a few days later Aunt Helen
broached the subject of preparations for the winter. I was to go into
society; and she had taken upon her shoulders the burden of having me
well-dressed and "presentable," as she called it. My clothes ordered
from Paris were at her house, and she took even more pleasure than I in
studying their effect when tried on, and in selecting from my mother's
jewelry the most appropriate articles for my toilet. There were certain
trinkets among them which she told me were all the rage; and she
concluded with a homily that I was very fortunate to be able to have
such expensive things to wear, and that many girls had to be content
with two ball-dresses, or in some instances with one. I was glad to put
myself entirely in her hands, for I felt that she knew about such
matters. My own sensations were a mixture of timidity, bewilderment, and
exultation.

One evening a short time previous to the beginning of the gay season my
father turned to me and said,--

"There is something I wish to tell you, Virginia. I have recently made
my will. With the exception of a few legacies for charitable uses and a
bequest to each of your aunts, I have left everything to you. Very
likely it may be a surprise to you