deduction had been of a very different kind. Mamie followed the
speaker with bright but visionary eyes. There must be some truth
in all this. Her mother had said it; Mr. Slinn had laughingly
admitted it. She HAD a brilliant future before her! Was she right
in making it impossible by a rash and foolish tie? He himself had
said she was inexperienced. She knew it; and yet, what was he
doing now but taking advantage of that inexperience? If he really
loved her, he would be willing to submit to the test. She did not
ask a similar one from him; and was willing, if she came out of it
free, to marry him just the same. There was something so noble in
this thought that she felt for a moment carried away by an impulse
of compassionate unselfishness, and smiled tenderly as she looked
up in his face.

"Then you consent, Mamie?" he said, eagerly, passing his arm around
her waist.

"Not now, Caesar," she said, gently disengaging herself. "I must
think it over; we are both too young to act upon it rashly; it
would be unfair to you, who are so quiet and have seen so few
girls--I mean Americans--to tie yourself to the first one you have
known. When I am gone you will go more into the world. There are
Mr. Slinn's two sisters coming here--I shouldn't wonder if they
were far cleverer and talked far better than I do--and think how I
should feel if I knew that only a wretched pledge to me kept you
from loving them!" She stopped, and cast down her eyes.

It was her first attempt at coquetry, for, in her usual charming
selfishness, she was perfectly frank and open; and it might not
have been her last, but she had gone too far at first, and was not