regarded Zell as a mere child still. Mr. Allen, who would have been
very anxious had Zell been receiving the attentions of some penniless
young clerk or artist, laughed at her "flirtation with old Van Dam" as
an eminently safe proceeding.

But on the present evening her sisters were too much occupied with
their own friends to give Zell or her dangerous admirer much
attention. As yet no formal engagement had bound any of them, but an
intimacy and mutual liking, tending to such a result, was rapidly
growing.

In Edith's case the attraction of contrasts was again shown. Augustus
Elliot, the youth who had approached her with such confidence and
grace, was quite as stylish a personage as herself, and that was
saying a great deal. But every line of his full handsome face, as well
as the expression of his light blue eyes, showed that he had less
decision in the whole of his luxurious nature than she in her little
finger. Self-indulgence and good-natured vanity were unmistakably his
characteristics. To yield, not for the good of others, but because not
strong enough to stand sturdily alone, was the law of his being. If he
could ever have been kept under the influence of good and stronger
natures, who would have developed his naturally kind heart and good
impulses into something like principle, he might have had a safe and
creditable career. But he was the idol of a foolish, fashionable
mother, and the pet of two or three sisters who were empty-brained
enough to think their handsome brother the perfection of mankind; and
by eye, manner, and often the plainest words, they told him as much,
and he had at last come to believe them. Why should they not? He was
faultless in his own dress, faultless in his criticism of a lady's
dress, taking the prevailing fashion as the standard. He was perfectly