began walking up and
down his room in a very nervous kind of way. It was a foreshadowing of a
certain event now pretty sure to happen. Whatever bearing this telegram
may have had upon his plans, he made up his mind that he would contrive
an opportunity somehow that very evening to propose himself as a suitor
to Myrtle Hazard. He could not say that he felt as absolutely certain of
getting the right answer as he had felt at some previous periods. Myrtle
knew her price, he said to himself, a great deal better than when she was
a simple country girl. The flatteries with which she had been
surrounded, and the effect of all the new appliances of beauty, which had
set her off so that she could not help seeing her own attractions,
rendered her harder to please and to satisfy. A little experience in
society teaches a young girl the arts and the phrases which all the
Lotharios have in common. Murray Bradshaw was ready to land his fish
now, but he was not quite sure that she was yet hooked, and he had a
feeling that by this time she knew every fly in his book. However, as he
had made up his mind not to wait another day, he addressed himself to the
trial before him with a determination to succeed, if any means at his
command would insure success. He arrayed himself with faultless
elegance: nothing must be neglected on such an occasion. He went forth
firm and grave as a general going into a battle where all is to be lost
or won. He entered the blazing saloon with the unfailing smile upon his
lips, to which he set them as he set his watch to a particular hour and
minute.

The rooms were pretty well filled when he arrived and made his bow before
the blazing, rustling, glistening, waving, blushing appearance under
which palpitated, with the pleasing excitement of the magic scene over
which its owner presided, the heart of Mrs. Clymer Ketchum. He turned to
Myrtle Hazard, and if he had ever doubted which way his inclinations led
him, he could doubt no longer. How much dress and how much light can a
woman bear? That is the way to measure her beauty. A plain girl in a
simple dress, if she has only a pleasant voice, may seem almost a beauty
in the rosy twilight. The nearer she comes to being handsome, the more
ornament she will bear, and the more she may defy the sunshine or the
chandelier.

Murray Bradshaw was fairly dazzled with the brilliant effect of Myrtle in
full dress. He did not know before what handsome arms she h