?"

"What a goose!" was the complimentary reply of Bell. "If you _have_
sighed, the sound was very much like that of loud talking and laughter.
But what has all that to do with to-day, and why were you pointing
towards the door?"

"Why, you ninny," cried Joe, in response to the "goose" compliment just
passed--"that man who has just left us--that man who is coming back in a
moment--is the owner of the eyes; and those eyes are my destiny!"

"Pshaw!" said Bell, "I did not see anything remarkable about the eyes,
or the man."

"Didn't you, now!" said Josephine, with the least bit in the world of
pique in her voice. "Well, that is the fault of _your_ eyes, and not of
_his_. I tell you those eyes are my destiny--I feel it and know it. I
have not seen a pair before in a long while, that looked as if they
could laugh and make love at the same time, and still have a little
lightning in reserve for somebody they hated. Mr. Tom Leslie--well, it
is a rather pretty name, and I think I must take him."

"For shame, Joe!" said Miss Bell, her propriety really shocked at the
idea of a young girl declaring herself, even in jest, in love with a man
who had said nothing to justify the preference.

"Yes, I suppose it is all wrong!" said Joe, between a sigh and a laugh.
"You know I have been doing wrong things all my life, and anything else
would not be natural. Do you remember, Bell," and her dark eyes had an
expression of demure fun in them that was irresistibly droll--"do you
remember how I left all my trunks unlocked and my room door open, at the
Philadelphia hotel when we were stopping there one winter on our way
from Washington,--and how I left my purse on the bureau in my room and
grabbed a gentleman by the arm in the street, accusing him of picking my
pocket?"

"I _do_ remember," said Bell, a little with the air of a very proper
Mentor who was not in the habit of making corresponding blunders. "And I
should think, Joe, that now that you are a little older you would be a
little more careful!"

"Yes, I daresay you do," answered Miss Josey, "but you know that I am
myself and nobody else. I should stagnate and die in a week, if I was
either one of those 'wealthy curled darlings' kept in exact position by
the possession of too many thousands, or so hemmed by more confined
worldly circumstances that I dared not take one step without stopping to
consider the consequences. Hang propriety!--I _hate_ propriety! Now you
have it, and you