d he or she may on your heart,
it has a few secrets that are strictly its own. If admiration of myself
could win my favor, I had every reason to be satisfied with the hands
into which fortune had now thrown me. There were many things to admire
in Eudosia--a defective education being the great evil with which she
had to contend. Owing to this education, if it really deserved such a
name, she had superficial accomplishments, superficially
acquired--principles that scarce extended beyond the retenue and morals
of her sex--tastes that had been imbibed from questionable models--and
hopes that proceeded from a false estimate of the very false position
into which she had been accidentally and suddenly thrown. Still Eudosia
had a heart. She could scarcely be a woman, and escape the influence of
this portion of the female frame. By means of the mesmeritic power of a
pocket-handkerchief, I soon discovered that there was a certain Morgan
Morely in New York, to whom she longed to exhibit my perfection, as
second to the wish to exhibit her own.

{retenue = discretion}

I scarcely know whether to felicitate myself or not, on the
circumstance that I was brought out the very first evening I passed in
the possession of Eudosia Halfacre. The beautiful girl was dressed and
ready for Mrs. Trotter's ball by eight; and her admiring mother thought
it impossible for the heart of Morgan Morely, a reputed six figure
fortune, to hold out any longer. By some accident or other, Mr.
Halfacre did not appear--he had not dined at home; and the two females
had all the joys of anticipation to themselves.

"I wonder what has become of your father," said Mrs. Halfacre, after
inquiring for her husband for the tenth time. "It is SO like him to
forget an engagement to a ball. I believe he thinks of nothing but his
lots. It is really a great trial, Dosie, to be so rich. I sometimes
wish we weren't worth more than a million, for, after all, I suspect
true happiness is to be found in these little fortunes. Heigho! It's
ten o'clock, and we must go, if we mean to be there at all; for Mrs.
Caverly once said, in my presence, that she thought it as vulgar to be
too late, as too early."

The carriage was ordered, and we all three got in, leaving a message
for Mr. Halfacre to follow us. As the rumor that a "three-figure"
pocket-handkerchief was to be at the ball, had preceded my appearance,
a general buzz announced my arrival in the salle a manger-salons. I
have n