young man, and has a most honorable
profession with good prospects, and I know he loves you. You need not
ask me how I know it--it is always easy for a woman to find out things
like that. Now, here is a prospective husband for you whose cause I
should advocate. In fact, I should be delighted to see you married to
him. He possesses every quality which would make you a good husband."

Olive smiled. "You seem to know a great deal about him," said she, "and
I assure you that so far as he himself is concerned, I have no
objections to him, except that I think he might have had the courage to
come and tell me the truth this morning, whatever it is."

"Perhaps he has not found out the truth yet," quickly suggested Mrs.
Easterfield.

Olive fixed her eyes upon her companion and for a few moments reflected,
but presently she shook her head.

"No, that can not be," she answered. "He would have let me know he had
been obliged to wait. Oh, no, it is all settled, and we can drop that
subject. But as for Mr. Lancaster, his connections would make any
thought of him impossible. He, and his father, too, are both close
friends of my uncle, and he would be a constant communication between me
and that woman unless there should be a quarrel, which I don't wish to
cause. No, I want to leave everything of that sort as far behind me as
it used to be in front of me, and as Professor Lancaster is mixed up
with it I could not think of having anything to do with him."

Mrs. Easterfield was silent. She was trying to make up her mind whether
this girl were talking sense or nonsense. What she said seemed to be
extremely nonsensical, but as she said it, it was difficult to believe
that she did not consider it to be entirely rational.

"Well," said Olive, "you have objected to two of my candidates, and I
positively decline the one you offer, so we have left only the diplomat.
He has proposed, and he has not yet received a definite answer. You have
told me yourself that he belongs to an aristocratic family in Austria,
and I am sure that would be a grand match. We have talked together a
great deal, and he seems to like the things I like. I should see plenty
of court life and high society, for he will soon be transferred from
this legation, and if I take him I shall go to some foreign capital. He
is very sharp and ambitious, and I have no doubt that some day he will
be looked upon as a distinguished foreigner. Now, as it is the ambition
of many Americ