sensitive plant. He did not venture near the thoughtless girl during
the evening, and whenever they again met, he was distant and formal.
Still, the thought of her made the blood flow quicker through his
veins, and the sight of her made his heart throb with a sudden
bound.

From that time, Joseph, who had looked forward with pleasure to the
period when, as a man, he could commence his business, and prosecute
it with energy and success, became dissatisfied with the trade he
was learning. The contemptuous words of Mary Dielman made him feel
that there was something low in the calling of a tailor--something
beneath the dignity of a man. He did not reason on the subject; he
only felt. Gradually he withdrew himself from society, and shut
himself up at home, devoting all his leisure to reading and study.
This was continued until he attained the age of manhood, soon after
which he procured the situation of clerk in a dry-goods store. At
his trade he could easily earn twelve dollars a week; but he left
it, because he was silly enough to be ashamed of it, and went into a
dry-goods store at a salary of four hundred dollars a year. As a
clerk he felt more like a man. Why he should, is more than I can
comprehend. But so it was.

As for Mary Dielman, she was not aware, at the time when she felt so
pleased with the attentions of Joseph Fletcher, that he was a
tailor--a calling for which she always expressed the most supreme
contempt. Her thoughtless words were not, therefore, meant for his
ears. The fact that she had uttered them was not remembered ten
minutes after they were spoken. Why she no longer met the
fine-looking, attentive and intelligent young man, she did not know.
Often she thought of him, and often searched the room for him, with