I have had many opportunities of close observation, and failed not
to improve them. The result is"

Jessie paused.

"What?" queried her aunt.

"That the more narrowly I scan him the less I like him. He is
superficial, vain and selfish."

"How do you know?"

"I cannot make manifest to your eyes the signs that were clear to
mine. But so I have read him."

"And read him with the page upside down, my, word for it, Miss
Jessie Loring!"

Jessie answered only with a sigh, and when her aunt still pressed
her on the subject, she begged to be spared, as she felt nervous and
excited. So, leaving the sitting room, she retired to her own
apartment, to gather up, and unravel, if possible, the tangled
thread of thought and feeling.






CHAPTER III.