thing as a young man,
for a man is not really a man till he is middle-aged. But take them
at their worst they are a deal too good for us, for they become men
some day, whereas we must only be women to the end."

"My word, Bella!" exclaimed the mother.

"You have managed to be tolerably heavy upon God's creatures, taking
them in a lump," said the father. "Boys, girls, and cows! Something
has gone wrong with you besides the rain."

"Nothing on earth, sir,--except the boredom."

"Some young man has been talking to you, Bella."

"One or two, mother; and I got to be thinking if any one of them
should ask me to marry him, and if moved by some evil destiny I were
to take him, whether I should murder him, or myself, or run away with
one of the others."

"Couldn't you bear with him till, according to your own theory, he
would grow out of his folly?" said the father.

"Being a woman,--no. The present moment is always everything to me.
When that horrid old harridan halloaed out that somebody was smoking,
I thought I should have died. It was very bad just then."

"Awful!" said Mrs. Boncassen, shaking her head.

"I didn't seem to feel it much," said the father. "One doesn't look
to have everything just what one wants always. If I did I should go
nowhere;--but my total life would be less enjoyable. If ever you do
get married, Bell, you should remember that."

"I mean to get married some day, so that I shouldn't be made love to
any longer."

"I hope it will have that effect," said the father.

"Mr. Boncassen!" ejaculated the mother.

"What I say is true. I hope it will have that effect. It had with
you, my dear."

"I don't know that people didn't think of me as much as of anybody
else, even though I was married."

"Then, my dear, I never knew it."

Miss Boncassen, though she had behaved serenely and with good temper
during the process of Dolly's proposal, had not liked it. She had a
very high opinion of herself, and was certainly entitled to have it
by the undisguised admiration of all that came near her. She was not
more indifferent to the admiration of young men than are other young
ladies. But she was not proud of the admiration of Dolly Longstaff.
She was here among strangers whose ways were unknown to her, whose
rank and standing in the world were vague to her, and wonderful
in their dimness. She knew that she was associating with men very
different from those at home where young men were supposed to be
und