ly enough, but was evidently a little
confused,--a circumstance which might well attract my notice, for I had
never before seen that high-bred young lady deviate a hairsbreadth from
the even tenor of a manner admirable for a cheerful and courteous ease,
which, one felt convinced, would be unaltered to those around her if an
earthquake swallowed one up an inch before her feet.

The young gentleman continued to eye me loftily, as the heir-apparent to
some celestial planet might eye an inferior creature from a half-formed
nebula suddenly dropped upon his sublime and perfected, star.

Mrs. Poyntz extended to me two fingers, and said frigidly, "Delighted to
see you again! How kind to attend so soon to my note!"

Motioning me to a seat beside her, she here turned to her husband, and
said, "Poyntz, since a cycle of rain begins tomorrow, better secure your
ride to-day. Take these young people with you. I want to talk with Dr.
Fenwick."

The colonel carefully put away his barometer, and saying to his
daughter, "Come!" went forth. Jane followed her father; the young
gentleman followed Jane.

The reception I had met chilled and disappointed me. I felt that Mrs.
Poyntz was changed, and in her change the whole house seemed changed.
The very chairs looked civilly unfriendly, as if preparing to turn their
backs on me. However, I was not in the false position of an intruder; I
had been summoned; it was for Mrs. Poyntz to speak first, and I waited
quietly for her to do so.

She finished the careful folding of her work, and then laid it at rest
in the drawer of the table at which she sat. Having so done, she turned
to me, and said,--

"By the way, I ought to have introduced to you my young guest, Mr.
Ashleigh Sumner. You would like him. He has talents,--not showy, but
solid. He will succeed in public life."

"So that young man is Mr. Ashleigh Sumner? I do not wonder that Miss
Ashleigh rejected him."

I said this, for I was nettled, as well as surprised, at the coolness
with which a lady who had professed a friendship for me mentioned that
fortunate young gentleman, with so complete an oblivion of all the
antecedents that had once made his name painful to my ear.

In turn, my answer seemed to nettle Mrs. Poyntz.

"I am not so sure that she did reject; perhaps she rather misunderstood
him; gallant compliments are not always proposals of marriage. However
that be, his spirits were not much damped by Miss Ashleigh's disdain,
no