The general folly which reads a prospectus and blindly speculates in
shares, is matched by the equally diffused stupidity, which is
incapable of discovering that there can be any possible relation
between fiction and truth. Say it's in a novel--and you are a fool if
you believe it. Say it's in a newspaper--and you are a fool if you
doubt it. Mr. Le Frank, following the general example, followed it on
this occasion a little too unreservedly. He avowed his doubts of the
circumstance just related, although it was, on the authority of a lady,
a circumstance occurring in real life! Far from being offended, Miss
Minerva cordially sympathized with him.

"It _is_ too theatrical to be believed," she admitted; "but this
fainting young person is positively the interesting stranger we have
been expecting from Italy. You know Mrs. Gallilee. Hers was the first
smelling-bottle produced; hers was the presence of mind which suggested
a horizontal position. 'Help the heart,' she said; 'don't impede it.'
The whole theory of fainting fits, in six words! In another moment,"
proceeded the governess making a theatrical point without suspecting
it--"in another moment, Mrs. Gallilee herself stood in need of the
smelling-bottle."

Mr. Le Frank was not a true believer, even yet. "You don't mean _she_
fainted!" he said.

Miss Minerva held up the indicative forefinger, with which she
emphasized instruction when her pupils required rousing. "Mrs.
Gallilee's strength of mind--as I was about to say, if you had listened
to me--resisted the shock. What the effort must have cost her you will
presently understand. Our interesting young lady was accompanied by a