bestowed upon that worshipful creature who was capable of adding another
marriage to the world. I hope the reader finds nothing vulgar or
unbecoming in this, for I do not; it was an enthusiasm, pure and simple,
a beautiful and unselfish abandon; and I am sure men ought to be sorry
that they are not worthier to be favored by it. Ladies have often to
lament in the midst of their finesse that, really, no man is deserving
the fate they devote themselves to prepare for him, or, in other words,
that women cannot marry women.

I am not going to be so rash as try to depict Mrs. Ellison's arts, for
then, indeed, I should make her appear the clumsy conspirator she was
not, and should merely convict myself of ignorance of such matters.
Whether Mr. Arbuton was ever aware of them, I am not sure: as a man he
was, of course, obtuse and blind; but then, on the other hand, he had
seen far more of the world than Mrs. Ellison, and she may have been
clear as day to him. Probably, though, he did not detect any design; he
could not have conceived of such a thing in a person with whom he had
been so irregularly made acquainted, and to whom he felt himself so
hopelessly superior. A film of ice such as in autumn you find casing the
still pools early in the frosty mornings had gathered upon his manner
over night; but it thawed under the greetings of the others, and he
jumped actively out of the vehicle to offer the ladies their choice of
seats. When all was arranged he found himself at Mrs. Ellison's side,
for Kitty had somewhat eagerly climbed to the front seat with the
colonel. In these circumstances it was pure zeal that sustained Mrs.
Ellison in the flattering constancy with which she babbled on to Mr.
Arbuton and refrained from openly resenting Kitty's contumacy.

As the wagon began to ascend the hill, the road was so rough that the
springs smote together with pitiless jolts, and the ladies uttered some