world, but Mrs. Delano and her _adoptee_,
escorted by that young clerk. Think of her, with her dove-colored
silks and violet gloves, crowded and jostled by Dinah and Sambo! I
expect the next thing we shall hear will be that she has given a negro
party."

"In that case, I presume she will choose to perfume her embroidered
handkerchiefs with musk, or pachouli, instead of her favorite breath
of violets," responded Mrs. Ton.

And, smiling at their wit, the fashionable ladies parted, to quote it
from each other as among the good things they had recently heard.

Only the faint echoes of such remarks reached Mrs. Delano; though she
was made to feel, in many small ways, that she had become a black
sheep in aristocratic circles. But these indications passed by her
almost unnoticed, occupied as she was in earnestly striving to redeem
the mistakes of the past by making the best possible use of the
present.

PART SECOND.

CHAPTER XXIV.

An interval of nineteen years elapsed, bringing with them various
changes to the personages of this story. A year after Mr.
Fitzgerald's return from Europe, a feud sprang up between him and his
father-in-law, Mr. Bell, growing out of his dissipated and spendthrift
habits. His intercourse with Boston was consequently suspended, and
the fact of Flora's existence remained unknown to him. He died nine
years after he witnessed the dazzling apparition of Rosa in Rome, and
the history of his former relation to her was buried with him, as were
several other similar secrets. There was generally supposed to be
something mysterious about his exit. Those who were acquainted with
Mr. Bell's family were aware that the marriage had been an unhappy
one, and that there was an obvious disposition to hush inquiries
concerning it. Mrs. Fitzgerald had always continued to spend her
summers with her parents; and having lost her mother about the time of
her widowhood, she became permanently established at the head of her
father's household. She never in any way alluded to her married life,
and always dismissed the subject as briefly as possible, if any
stranger touched upon it. Of three children, only one, her eldest,
remained. Time had wrought changes in her person. Her once fairy-like
figure was now too short for its fulness, and the blue eyes were
somewhat dulled in expression; but the fair face and the paly-gold
tresses were still very pretty.

When she had at last succeeded in obtaining an introduc