dly serve
your turn now: the poor child is in no jesting mood. Nor am I; nor ought
you to be."

"Sister, you wrong me. It is my warmth of heart, my fraternal affection,
which you have so oft-repulsed. Mine is a poet's nature. You stare, but
it is so: it is only lately that I discovered the fact myself. Like the
elder Bulwer, I pine for appreciation, for sympathy--"

"You will continue to pine if you go on like this. I never saw such a
man for beating about the bush and talking nonsense. What have you
accomplished?--I don't want to pry into her secrets, or ask her to share
her confidences, but--"

"Now, Jane, if you have any heart left, I will bring the tear of
contrition to your eye. I asked and obtained her permission to tell you
all I know, and all we have just arranged."

"Don't be so long about it, then. What are the arrangements?"

So I imparted them with but little modification or reservation; and
Mabel coming in presently, I went over the main outlines again. It is
not every man who could thus communicate state secrets to his family;
but mine never talk about home affairs to outsiders. One point is, they
do not attend the Sewing Society: if they did, I should feel less safe.
They approved in the main.

"It hardly seems fair to Mr. Hartman," said Jane; "but no doubt it's as
much as you can expect from her."

"I should say it was: why, she is acting nobly. If it were any other
man, he should, and would, have all the making up to do, instead of
putting it on us. You see, you--that is, we--don't exactly know what the
quarrel was. He must have been in the wrong, of course."

"O yes, because you are a man. Now suppose I, being a woman, say, 'She
must have been in the wrong, of course.'"

"My dears," said Mabel, "let us compromise. They are both human beings;
probably they were both in the wrong."

"Happy thought," said I. "We'll fix it that way: then they have only to
kiss and be friends. But still, the man is generally expected to open
the ball."

"That is," said Jane, "if all does not go smoothly from the start, which
can hardly be expected, poor Mr. Hartman is to be sacrificed."

"I would not put it just that way; though he, or any man, ought to be
glad to be sacrificed for Clarice. She is naturally first with me, as I
should suppose she would be with you--except that, as you pertinently
observe, you also are a woman. But never fear, Jane; I'll attend to
Hartman's case too. I hope to act as attorney f