ere not to
believe it! But I couldn't persuade them that that beautiful lace-edging
on your dress was real Mechlin, although I tried very hard. They said it
was natural in me to insist upon it, because I was your grand-niece; and
it was no matter at all, because old ladies could do just as they
pleased; but for all that it was not Mechlin. I must have told as many as
thirty people that they were wrong. But people's eyes are so sharp--it's
really dreadful. Good-morning, darling Aunt Dagon!"

"Fanny dear," said her mother, as the door closed upon Mrs. Dagon, who
departed speechless and in what may be called a simmering state of mind,
"Abel will be here in a day or two. I really hope to hear something about
this Miss Wayne. Do you suppose Alfred Dinks is actually engaged to her?"

"How should I know, mother?"

"Why, my dear, you have been so intimate with him."

"My dear mother, how _can_ any body be intimate with Alfred Dinks? You
might as well talk of breathing in a vacuum."

"But, Fanny, he is a very good sort of young man--so respectable, and
with such good manners, and he has a very pretty fortune--"

Mrs. Newt was interrupted by the servant, who announced Mr. Wetherley.

Poor Mr. Zephyr Wetherley! He was one of the rank and file of
society--one of the privates, so to speak, who are mentioned in a mass
after a ball, as common soldiers are mentioned after a battle. He entered
the room and bowed. Mrs. Newt seeing that it was one of her daughter's
visitors, left the room. Miss Fanny sat looking at the young man with her
black eyes so calmly that she seemed to him to be sitting a great way off
in a cool darkness. Miss Fanny was not fond of Mr. Wetherley, although
she had seen plainly enough the indications of his feeling for her. This
morning he was well gloved and booted. His costume was unexceptionable.
Society of that day boasted few better-dressed men than Zephyr Wetherley.
His judgment in a case of cravat was unerring. He had been in Europe, and
was quoted when waistcoats were in debate. He had been very attentive to
Mr. Alfred Dinks and Mr. Bowdoin Beacon, the two Boston youths who had
been charming society during the season that was now over. He was even
a little jealous of Mr. Dinks.

After Mrs. Newt had left the room Mr. Wetherley fell into confusion. He
immediately embarked, of course, upon the weather; while Fanny, taking up
a book, looked casually into it with a slight air of _ennui_.

"Have you read