everything that Tom Sparrell told her in his ordinary tone of voice.
Briefly, it was very possible that Delaware--the youngest Miss
Piper--did not like us. Yet it was fondly believed by us that the other
sisters failed to show that indifference to our existence shown by Miss
Delaware, although the heartburnings, misunderstandings, jealousies,
hopes and fears, and finally the chivalrous resignation with which we
at last accepted the long foregone conclusion that they were not for
us, and far beyond our reach, is not a part of this veracious chronicle.
Enough that none of the flirtations of her elder sisters affected or
were shared by the youngest Miss Piper. She moved in this heart-breaking
atmosphere with sublime indifference, treating her sisters' affairs with
what we considered rank simplicity or appalling frankness. Their few
admirers who were weak enough to attempt to gain her mediation or
confidence had reason to regret it.

"It's no kind o' use givin' me goodies," she said to a helpless suitor
of Louisiana Piper's who had offered to bring her some sweets, "for I
ain't got no influence with Lu, and if I don't give 'em up to her when
she hears of it, she'll nag me and hate you like pizen. Unless," she
added thoughtfully, "it was wintergreen lozenges; Lu can't stand them,
or anybody who eats them within a mile." It is needless to add that
the miserable man, thus put upon his gallantry, was obliged in honor to
provide Del with the wintergreen lozenges that kept him in disfavor
and at a distance. Unfortunately, too, any predilection or pity for any
particular suitor of her sister's was attended by even more disastrous
consequences. It was reported that while acting as "gooseberry"--a role
usually assigned to her--between Virginia Piper and an exceptionally
timid young surveyor, during a ramble she conceived a rare sentiment of
humanity towards the unhappy man. After once or twice lingering behind
in the ostentatious picking of a wayside flower, or "running on ahead"