paid for me, and yet with strong emotion. How she
wept over me, the first time we were alone together! I thought her
heart would break; nor am I certain it would not, but for the timely
interposition of Julia, who came and set her laughing by a humorous
narrative of what had occurred between her father and her lover.

That night the rout took place. It went off with eclat, but I did not
make my appearance at it, Adrienne rightly judging that I was not a
proper companion for one in her situation. It is true, this is not a
very American notion, EVERY thing being suitable for EVERY body, that
get them, in this land of liberty, but Adrienne had not been educated
in a land of liberty, and fancied that her dress should bear some
relation to her means. Little did she know that I was a sort of patent
of nobility, and that by exhibiting me, she might have excited envy,
even in an alderman's daughter. My non-appearance, however, made no
difference with Betts Shoreham, whose attentions throughout the evening
were so marked as to raise suspicion of the truth in the mind of even
Mrs. Monson.

{rout = evening party; eclat = brilliance}

The next day there was an eclaircissement. Adrienne owned who she was,
gave my history, acquainted Mrs. Monson with her connection with Mr.
Shoreham, and confessed the nature of his suit. I was present at this
interview, and it would be unjust to say that the mother was not
disappointed. Still she behaved generously, and like a high principled
woman. Adrienne was advised to accept Betts, and her scruples, on the
score of money, were gradually removed, by Mrs. Monson's arguments.

{eclaircissement = explanation}

"What a contrast do this Mr. Thurston and Adrienne present!" observed
Mrs. Monson to her husband, in a tete a tete, shortly after this
interview. "Here is the gentleman wanting to get our child, without a
shilling to bless himself with, and the poor girl refusing to marry the
man of her heart, because she is penniless."

"So much for education. We become mercenary or self-denying, very much
as we are instructed. In this country, it must be confessed,
fortune-hunting has made giant strides, within the last few years, and
that, too, with an audacity of pretension that is unrestrained by any
of the social barriers which exist elsewhere."

"Adrienne will marry Mr. Shoreham, I think. She loves; and when a girl
loves, her scruples of this nature are not invincible."

"Ay, HE can lay down d