chiefly because he was so weak of will that there was not much glory in
conquering him, and because her indulgence to him was a rod of
affliction to the rest of her family.

Failing to open communication through Jonas and Cynthy Ann, August found
himself in a desperate strait, and with an impatience common to young
men he unhappily had recourse to Betsey Malcolm. She often visited
Julia, and twice, when Julia was not at meeting, he went home with the
ingenuous Betsey, who always pretended to have something to tell him
"about Jule," and who yet, for the pure love of mischief-making, tried
to make him think as poorly as possible of Julia's sincerity, and who,
from pure love of flirtation, puckered her red lips, and flashed at him
with her sensuous eyes, and sighed and blushed, or rather flushed, while
she sympathized with him in a way that might have been perilous if he
had been an American instead of a constant-hearted "Dutchman," wholly
absorbed with the image of Julia. But, so far as carrying messages was
concerned, Betsey was certainly a non-conductor. She professed never to
be able to run the blockade with any communication of his. She said to
herself that she wasn't going to help Jule Anderson to keep _all_ the
beaus. She meant to capture one or the other of them if she could. And,
indeed, she did not dream how grievous was the wrong she did. For she
could appreciate no other feeling in the matter than vanity, and she
could not see any particular harm in "taking Jule Anderson down a peg."
And so she assured the anxious and already suspicious August that if she
was in his place she should want that singing-master out of the way.
"Some girls can't stand people that wear jewelry and mustaches and
straps and such things. And Mr. Humphreys is very careful of her, won't
let her sit too late on the porch, and is very comforting in his way of
talking to her. And she seems to like it. I tell you what it is, Gus
"--and she looked at him so bewitchingly that the pure and sensitive