delicacy. Her unaffected pleasure at meeting him had been as
pleasant as it was unlooked-for, aware as he was, from Mabel's
letter immediately preceding the rapture of their engagement, that
Rosa must have been staying with her when it occurred. The slander
that had blackened him in the esteem of his betrothed had, he
naturally supposed, injured his reputation beyond hope of retrieval
with her acquaintances. Rosa, her bosom companion, could not but
have heard the whole history, yet met him with undiminished
cordiality, as a valued friend. Either the Ayletts had been
unnaturally discreet, or the faith of the interesting girl in his
integrity was firmer and better worth preserving than he had
imagined in the past. Perhaps, too, since he was but mortal man,
although one whose heritage in the school of experience had been of
the sternest, he was not entirely insensible to the privilege of
promenading the long suite of apartments with the prettiest girl of
the season hanging upon his arm, and granting her undivided
attention to all that he said, indifferent to, or unmindful of, the
flattering notice she attracted.

Over and above all these recommendations to his peculiar regard was
her association with the happy days of his early love. Not an
intonation, not a look of hers, but reminded him of Ridgeley and of
Mabel. It was a perilous indulgence--this recurrence to a dream he
had vowed to forget, but the temptation had befallen him suddenly,
and he surrendered himself to the intoxication.

Yes! she was going to the President's levee that evening, Rosa said.
A sort of raree-show--was it not? with the Chief Magistrate for head
mountebank. He was worse off in one respect than the poorest
cottager in the nation he was commonly reported to govern, inasmuch