ying position for any young lady, and to Flossie,
whose nature was most delicately sensitive to such considerations, it
was torture. But, after all, these things were material and external;
and the worst of Flossie's suffering was in her soul. Before the
appearance of Miss Harden, the last two years had passed for Flossie
in gorgeous triumphal procession through the boarding-house. She had
been the invincible heroine of Mrs. Downey's for two years, she had
dragged its young hero at her chariot wheels for two years, she had
filled the heart of Ada Bishop with envy and the hearts of Mr. Soper
and Mr. Spinks with jealousy and anguish for two years; and now she
had all these people pitying her and looking down on her because she
had been so queerly treated; and this was even more intolerable to
poor Flossie. She knew perfectly well what every one of them was
saying. She knew that Ada Bishop had thanked Goodness she wasn't in
her shoes; that Miss Bramble spoke of her persistently as "that poor
young thing"; that Mrs. Downey didn't know which she pitied most, her
or poor Mr. Rickman. He was poor Mr. Rickman, if you please, because
he was considered to have entangled himself so inextricably with her.
She knew that Miss Roots maintained that it was all her (Flossie's)
own fault for holding Keith to his engagement; that Mr. Partridge had
wondered why girls were in such a hurry to get married; and that Mr.
Soper said she'd made a great mistake in ever taking up with a young
fellow you could depend on with so little certainty. And the burden of
it all was that Flossie had made a fool of herself and been made a
fool of. So she was very bitter in her little heart against the man
who was the cause of it all; and if she did not instantly throw Keith
Rickman over, that was because Flossie was not really such a fool as
for the moment she had been made to look.

But there was one person of the boarding-house whose opinion was as
yet unknown to Flossie or to anybody else; it was doubtful indeed if
it was known altogether to himself; for Mr. Spinks conceived that
honour bound him to a superb reticence on the subject. He had followed
with breathless anxiety every turn in the love affairs of Flossie and
his friend. He could not deny that a base and secret exultation had
possessed him on the amazing advent of Miss Harden; for love had made
him preternaturally keen, and he was visited with mysterious
intimations of the truth. He did not encour