f the first flirtation (always _except_ that of
Adam and Eve, when there was neither male nor female rival in the
neighborhood), and so it will be to the last--with those arrogant,
unreasonable, unsatisfied "lords of the creation."

A word of description of the two rivals, as yet unintroduced, who on
that occasion sunned themselves in the eyes of Emily Owen, though at
such different distances from the luminary.

Lt. Colonel John Boadley Bancker (let him have his full name once more,
for the honor of the service--be the same more or less!) was a rather
tall and slight man, gentlemanly in appearance and action, but with an
occasional dash of swagger that somehow did not indicate courage, and
the undefinable impression of the "old beau." His face was well-formed,
except that the nose was too large and too prominently aquiline. He had
faultlessly black side-whiskers and hair correspondingly black--_too_
black, Frank Wallace said--not to have been "doctored" by Batchelor or
Cristadoro, at least. The dark eyes were a little faded, and there were
crows-feet at the corners of the same eyes, for age has its own way of
telling its story, and not all of us who wish to be young can alter the
record in the old family Bible. In dress Colonel Bancker presented no
variation from the other colonels of the volunteer service--wearing the
full blue uniform, shoulder-straps and belts, with the number of his
regiment wrought in gold on the front of a broad brimmed hat lying on a
book-table near him. Not an ill-looking man by any manner of means, in
spite of the violent antipathy for him which Miss Emily had managed to
transmute out of her regard for Wallace.

"Age before beauty!" is a motto somewhat popular, so the Colonel has had
the preference. Frank Wallace, proprietor of a small but thriving
job-printing establishment before spoken of, and would-be proprietor of
the heart and hand of Miss Emily Owen--was altogether a different style
of man from the puissant Colonel. As he lounged at the window in his
suit of loose-fitting gray Melton, he looked very young indeed and
created rather the impression of a "little fellow." He probably fell at
least three or four inches short of the romantic six feet, in reality;
but was the owner of a fine erect and well-rounded gymnastic form, not a
little improved by frequent visits to the Seventh Regiment Gymnasium. A
jolly round face with very fair complexion, a merry blue eye, short,
curly brown hair an