impatient to know her mother’s success.

"Baffled, baffled," was Mrs. Cameron’s reply to her interrogatories. "I
can do nothing with her. She is as stubborn as a mule, and we shall either
have to conjure up for some reason why the engagement was broken off, or
else run the risk of being well laughed at among our circle in New York."

A few days after this, Lida Gibson started for the South, promising Fanny
that she would see Julia as soon as possible after her return home. Ere
long Mrs. Cameron too was seized with a desire to return to the city. The
remainder of the party made no objections, and accordingly Mr. and Mrs.
Stanton, Mrs. Cameron, Frank and Gertrude were soon in New York.

Soon after their return, Mrs. Cameron said, in speaking of Fanny, "that
’twas quite doubtful whether Frank would marry her or not. She was so
young, and had, too, so many suitors in Kentucky that she probably would
soon forget him, and for her part she was pleased to have it so!"





CHAPTER XIX


JULIA ANNOUNCES HER ENGAGEMENT TO DR. LACEY


Summer was gone and the bright, sunny days of autumn had come.