an idea that they have been settled quite as
satisfactorily as they could have been by any exercise of judgment."

"Eighteen hundred and fifty-two," said Bell, looking at the date on her
coin. "Eighteen hundred and fifty-seven," said Joe, paying the same
attention to the one she held. And "Eighteen hundred and sixty-one--only
last year!" said Leslie, jingling the coins in his hand and then
dropping them back into his pocket,--from which (_par parenthese_) they
were so soon and so effectually to disappear, with all others of their
kind, in the turning of exchanges against us and the general derangement
of the currency of the country.

"You are first, Bell, you see!" said Joe, "and I hope you will be able
to take the fiery edge off the teeth of the dragon before I get in to
him."

"And _I_ am the last, you perceive!" said Leslie. "The last, as I always
have been where women were concerned--too late, and of course
unsuccessful."

There may have been no positive reason for the slight flush which
crossed the face of Josephine Harris at that moment, or for the
conscious look of pleasure that danced for an instant in her eyes; and
yet there may have been a thought of true happiness at the assurance
which the last words of Leslie conveyed, that he was an unmarried man
and had been, so far, near enough heart-whole for all practical
purposes. If the latter should even have been true, she need not have
flushed a second time at recognizing the feeling in herself; for most
certainly those apparently light words of Tom Leslie had been, so to
speak, shot at her, with a determined intention of feeling ground to be
afterwards trodden.

"Madame is waiting your pleasure," said the negro girl, who had remained
standing near the curtain all this while, but too far distant to catch
many of the words passing between the three visitors, which had all been
uttered in a low tone.

"Ah, yes, we have kept her waiting too long, perhaps," said Leslie, "and
who knows but the fates may be the more unkind to us for the neglect of
their priestess." He was really not very well at his ease, but somewhat
anxious to appear so, as all very bashful people can fully understand,
when they remember the efforts they have sometimes made to appear the
most impudent men in creation. Tom Leslie was not in the slightest
degree bashful, and so the comparison fails in that regard; but he was
more than a little nervous at the certainty which he felt of once more