home. He had a great mind to go and see for himself whether it were true.
Nevertheless, the hunting was particularly good just at the time when he
got the letter, and being rather prudent of counsel, Ronald determined to
wait until a hard frost should spoil his temper and give the necessary
stimulus to his activity, before he packed his boxes for a western voyage.

As for Josephine, it was very natural that she should feel a little
homesick, and wish to have some one of her own people with her. In spite
of the favorable views she expressed about America, Boston, and her new
acquaintances, her position was not without some drawbacks in her own
eyes. She felt herself out of her natural element, and the very great
admiration she received in society, though pleasant enough in itself, was
not to her so entirely satisfactory as it would have been to a woman older
or younger than she, or to a more thorough flirt. An older woman would
have enjoyed more keenly the flattery of it; a younger girl would have
found it more novel and fresh, and the accomplished professional society
flirt--there is no other word to express her--would have rejoiced
exceedingly over a great holocaust of victims.

In writing to Surbiton and suggesting to him to come to Boston, Joe had no
intention of fanning his hopes into flame. She never thought much about
Ronald. She had long been used to him, and regarded him in the light of a
marriage fixture, though she had never exactly promised to marry him; she
had been brought up to suppose she would, and that was all. When or where
the marriage would actually take place was a question she did not care to
raise, and if ever Surbiton raised it she repressed him ruthlessly. For
the present she would look about the world, seeing she had been
transported into a new part of it, and she found it amusing. Only she
would like to have a companion to whom she could talk. Ronald would be so
convenient, and after all it was a great advantage to be able to make use