ve him, do you not! Besides, he is
rich--very rich in comparison to you--very, very rich. And if he were
not--oh, Helen!--is he not in himself--but I need not reason--you are
in your usual high spirits, and say what you do not mean."

"I do not, Rose, now, at all events. Last evening, Edward was so
earnest, so affectionate, so very earnest, it is pleasant to have
a true and faithful lover; but I should not quite like to break his
heart--it would not be friendly, knowing him so long; for indeed," she
added, gaily, "though I don't like Edward Lynne well enough to marry
him, I like him too well to break his heart in downright earnest."

There are women cold and coquettish by nature. The disposition
flourishes best in courtly scenes, but it will grow anywhere, ay, and
flourish anywhere. It unfortunately requires but little culture; still
Helen was in her novitiate. If she had not been so, she would not have
cared whether Edward broke his heart or not.

"But Helen," stammered Rose, "surely--you--you have been very wrong."

"I know it--I know--there, don't you _hear me_ say I know it, and
yet your lecturing face is as long as ever. Surely," she continued
pettishly, "I confess my crime; and even Mr. Stokes says, when
confessed it is amended."

"Helen!" exclaimed Rose suddenly; "Helen!--if what you have now said
is really true, you have only told me half the truth. Helen Marsh, you
have seen some one you like better than Edward Lynne."

"No!" was Helen's prompt reply, for she would not condescend to a
falsehood--her own pride was a sufficient barrier against that.
"No, Rose, I have not seen any one I like better than Edward. But,
Rose"--She buried her face in her hands, and as suddenly withdrew
them, and shaking back her luxuriant ringlets, while a bright
triumphant colour mounted to her cheeks, added--"There is no reason
_why_ I should be ashamed. I saw, last week, at Mrs. Howard's, one
whom I would rather marry."

"I always thought," murmured Rose, weeping in the fulness of her
generous nature, as the idea of Edward's future misery came upon
her--"I always thought no good would come of your visiting a lady so
much above us." It would be impossible to describe the contemptuous
expression of Helen's finely moulded features, while she repeated, as
if to herself, "Above _us_!--above _me_!" And then she added aloud,
and with what seemed to Rose a forced expression of joy, "But good
_will_ come of it, Rose--good will surely