.
"Your Mamita is one of them; and she is becoming less cold and
aristocratic every day, thanks to a little Cinderella who came to her
singing through the woods, two years ago."

"And who found a fairy godmother," responded Flora, subsiding into
a tenderer tone. "It _is_ ungrateful for me to say anything against
Boston; and with such friends as the Percivals too. But it does seem
mean that Mr. Green, if he really liked me, should decline speaking to
me because my great-grandmother had a dark complexion. I never knew
the old lady, though I dare say I should love her if I did know
her. Madame used to say Rosabella inherited pride from our Spanish
grandfather. I think I have some of it, too; and it makes me shy of
being introduced to your stylish acquaintance, who might blame you if
they knew all about me. I like people who do know all about me, and
who like me because I am I. That's one reason why I like Florimond. He
admired my mother, and loved my father; and he thinks just as well of
me as if I had never been sold for a slave."

"Do you always call him Florimond?" inquired Mrs. Delano.

"I call him Mr. Blumenthal before folks, and he calls me Miss Delano.
But when no one is by, he sometimes calls me Miss Royal, because he
says he loves that name, for the sake of old times; and then I call
him Blumen, partly for short, and partly because his cheeks are so
pink, it comes natural. He likes to have me call him so. He says Flora
is the _Goettinn der Blumen_ in German, and so I am the Goddess of
Blumen."

Mrs. Delano smiled at these small scintillations of wit, which in the
talk of lovers sparkle to them like diamond-dust in the sunshine.

"Has he ever told you that he loved _you_ as well as your name?" asked
she.

"He never said so, Mamita; but I think he does," rejoined Flora.

"What reason have you to think so?" inquired her friend.

"He wants very much to come here," replied the young lady; "but he is
extremely modest. He says he knows he is not suitable company for such
a rich, educated lady as you are. He is taking dancing-lessons, and
lessons on the piano, and he is studying French and Italian and
history, and all sorts of things. And he says he means to make a mint
of money, and then perhaps he can come here sometimes to see me dance,
and hear me play on the piano."

"I by no means require that all my acquaintance should make a mint of
money," answered Mrs. Delano. "I am very much pleased with the account