'I own it vexed--it irritated me, to hear your name thus lightly pitched
from lip to lip, like some mere dancing-girl's fame. I hastened this
morning to seek and to warn you. I found Glaucus here. I was stung
from my self-possession. I could not conceal my feelings; nay, I was
uncourteous in thy presence. Canst thou forgive thy friend, Ione?'

Ione placed her hand in his, but replied not.

'Think no more of this,' said he; 'but let it be a warning voice, to
tell thee how much prudence thy lot requires. It cannot hurt thee,
Ione, for a moment; for a gay thing like this could never have been
honored by even a serious thought from Ione. These insults only wound
when they come from one we love; far different indeed is he whom the
lofty Ione shall stoop to love.'

'Love!' muttered Ione, with an hysterical laugh. 'Ay, indeed.'

It is not without interest to observe in those remote times, and under a
social system so widely different from the modern, the same small causes
that ruffle and interrupt the 'course of love', which operate so
commonly at this day--the same inventive jealousy, the same cunning
slander, the same crafty and fabricated retailings of petty gossip,
which so often now suffice to break the ties of the truest love, and
counteract the tenor of circumstances most apparently propitious. When
the bark sails on over the smoothest wave, the fable tells us of the
diminutive fish that can cling to the keel and arrest its progress: so
is it ever with the great passions of mankind; and we should paint life
but ill if, even in times the most prodigal of romance, and of the
romance of which we most largely avail ourselves, we did not also