tle's bracelet, of which she had told
them the story, but which Kitty half believed was put in the drawer by
the fairies, who brought her ribbons and partridge feathers, and
other slight adornments with which she contrived to set off her simple
costume, so as to produce those effects which an eye for color and
cunning fingers can bring out of almost nothing.

Gifted Hopkins was now in a sad, vacillating condition, between the two
great attractions to which he was exposed. Myrtle looked so immensely
handsome ere Sunday when he saw her going to church, not to meeting, for
she world not go, except when she knew Father Pemberton was going to be
the preacher, that the young poet was on the point of going down on his
knees to her, and telling her that his heart was hers and hers alone.
But he suddenly remembered that he had on his best trousers, and the
idea of carrying the marks of his devotion in the shape of two dusty
impressions on his most valued article of apparel turned the scale
against the demonstration. It happened the next morning, that Susan
Posey wore the most becoming ribbon she had displayed for a long
time, and Gifted was so taken with her pretty looks that he might very
probably have made the same speech to her that he had been on the point
of making to Myrtle the day before, but that he remembered her plighted
affections, and thought what he should have to say for himself when
Clement Lindsay, in a frenzy of rage and jealousy, stood before him,
probably armed with as many deadly instruments as a lawyer mentions by
name in an indictment for murder.

Cyprian Eveleth looked very differently on the new manifestations Myrtle
was making of her tastes and inclinations. He had always felt dazzled,
as well as attracted, by her; but now there was something in her
expression and manner which made him feel still more strongly that they
were intended for different spheres of life. He could not but own that
she was born for a brilliant destiny,--that no ball-room would throw a
light from its chandeliers too strong for her,--that no circle would
be too brilliant for her to illuminate by her presence. Love does not
thrive without hope, and Cyprian was beginning to see that it was idle
in him to think of folding these wide wings of Myrtle's so that they
would be shut up in any cage he could ever offer her. He began to doubt
whether, after all, he might not find a meeker and humbler nature better
adapted to his own. And so i