little weak."

The friend looked at the couple an smiled. "It is ridiculous,
certainly," he remarked. "Why havn't they sense enough to keep these
little love-passages for private occasions?"

"Clara, with all her silliness used to be a right pleasant
companion," said Mears. "But since this love affair between her and
Fisher, she has become intolerably dull and uninteresting. She
doesn't care a fig for anybody but him, and really appears to think
it a task to be even polite to an old acquaintance. I don't think
she has cause to be quite so elated with her conquest as this comes
to; nor to feel that, in possessing the love of a man like Fisher,
she is independent of the world, and may show off the indifference
she feels to every one. Fisher is clever enough, but he is neither a
Socrates nor a saint."

"He will suit her very well, I imagine."

"Yes; they will make a passable Darby and Joan, no doubt. Still, it
always vexes me to see people, who pretend to any sense, acting in
this way."

"I think it is more her fault than his."

"So do I. She has shown a disposition to bill and coo from the
first. At Mangum's party, last week, she made me sick. I tried to
get her hand for a dance, but no. Close to the side of Fisher she
adhered, like a fixture, and could hardly force her lips into a
smile for any one else. The gipsy! I'd punish her for all this, if I