she would have accepted even Flora with thankfulness.

It is a favorite delusion with the British parent that marriage will
work a miracle, and steady their children for life, by casting forth the
_lutins_ who beset them. A thousand failures have not convinced the good
speculative matrons of the hazard of the experiment, nor will as many
more do so; they will go on match-making and blundering to the end of
time. For a very brief space the evil spirits are exorcised; but before
the gloss is off the new-married couple's new furniture, one of the band
creeps back and opens the door to his fellows. These hardly know their
old quarters at first, but they soon begin to like them better than
ever--are they not swept and garnished? "So they enter in and dwell
there, and"--I need not finish the sentence; a thousand sweet though
somewhat shrill voices will save me that trouble--a doleful music--an
ancient tale of wrong--the Song of the Brides! They used to say that a
man never went so hard to hounds after entering the holy estate. If
this be so, I fear it is the only comforting result which follows of
course.

What Flora and Guy said to each other at parting I can not guess.
Neither was of the sentimental order, and both might have taken for
their motto, "Lightly won and lightly lost." Her hand lingered somewhat
long in his as they said farewell, but she was smiling, if any thing,
more saucily than ever. So she went, leaving behind her no tangible
token, except a tiny pearl-colored glove, which Guy twisted rather
pensively between his fingers as he stood on the hall steps, and watched
the carriage disappear down the avenue. Mr. Bruce exulted after his
saturnine fashion, and Isabel Raymond trembled; the one had lost a
strong, unscrupulous ally, the other a formidable enemy.