willing that people should know of her flattering prospects; and when
a few days after Mrs. Dr. Otis told her that Mrs. Kimball said that
Polly Larkins said that her hired girl told her that Mrs. Kirby's
hired girl told her that she overheard Miss Kate telling her mother
that Lenora Carter said that Mr. Hamilton was going to be married to
her mother's intimate friend, Mrs. Carter would have denied the whole
and probably divulged her own secret, had not Lenora, who chanced to
be present, declared, with the coolest effrontery, that 'twas all
true--that her mother had promised to stand up with them, and so folks
would find it to be if they did not die of curiosity before autumn!

"Lenora, child, how can you talk so?" asked the distressed lady, as
the door closed upon her visitor.

Lenora went off into fits of explosive laughter, bounding up and down
like an india-rubber ball, and at last condescended to say, "I know
what I'm about. Do you want Mag Hamilton breaking up the match, as she
surely would do, between this and autumn, if she knew it?"

"And what can she do?" asked Mrs. Carter.

"Why," returned Lenora, "can't she write to the place you came from,
if, indeed, such a spot can be found?--for I believe you sometimes
book yourself from one town and sometimes from another. But depend
upon it you had better take my advice and keep still, and in the
dénouement which follows, I alone shall be blamed for a slight stretch
of truth which you can easily excuse as 'one of _dear_ Lenora's silly,
childish freaks!'"

Upon second thoughts, Mrs. Carter concluded to follow her daughter's