and when she was Belle White she was one of the "pretty"
girls in Lansing, Michigan. She had then a train of suitors.
She could truly remind Archie that "the boys hung around
her." They did. They thought her very spirited and were
always saying, "Oh, that Belle White, she's a case!" She
used to play heavy practical jokes which the young men

thought very clever. Archie was considered the most
promising young man in "the young crowd," so Belle
selected him. She let him see, made him fully aware, that
she had selected him, and Archie was the sort of boy who
could not withstand such enlightenment. Belle's family
were sorry for him. On his wedding day her sisters looked
at the big, handsome boy--he was twenty-four--as he
walked down the aisle with his bride, and then they looked
at each other. His besotted confidence, his sober, radiant
face, his gentle, protecting arm, made them uncomfort-
able. Well, they were glad that he was going West at once,
to fulfill his doom where they would not be onlookers. Any-
how, they consoled themselves, they had got Belle off their
hands.

More than that, Belle seemed to have got herself off her
hands. Her reputed prettiness must have been entirely
the result of determination, of a fierce little ambition. Once
she had married, fastened herself on some one, come to
port,--it vanished like the ornamental plumage which
drops away from some birds after the mating season. The