nge you will wear
flounces--_I_ cannot endure them, and they are so unbecoming for you!'

"Well, I _did_ give James Thompson, 'the cox-comb,' as Harry called
him, leave to understand I was not 'at home' to him; and I stayed away
from all places of amusement to which Harry _would not_, or could not
go, (which former I came at last to know was most frequently the
case.) And I did treat Charles Wood more coolly than my conscience
approved, for nature gave to him a good, kind heart, if she did not
make him a genius. And I left off flounces, which my tasty little
'dress-maker' thought '_such_ a pity;' and I braided my hair, which
all the time cried out against the stiff bands I put on the curly
locks; in short, for six months I made a fool of myself, by giving way
to all my exacting lover's whims. It makes me shudder when I think of
what had been my fate had I married him--I should have died a very
martyr long before this day.

"I knew that on most subjects Harry's opinion was worth having--his
judgment sound; so I resolved to try what might be done on _this_
point, which certainly concerned our happiness so much. By degrees I
went back to my old habits, saying never a word to him of the test I
was intending to put to him. Perhaps _you_ would have proceeded
differently--you might have reasoned with him, and urged him not to
distress himself about affairs far too trifling for him to interfere
with--about which no woman likes the interference, even of a favored
lover.

"But such a course was not the one for me--and in the end, a person
pursuing a far different method of reasoning might, probably would,
have arrived at the same climax that I did. Wherever among my old
friends I chose to go, I went without consulting the pleasure of his
highness, who had led me about as a child in leading-strings quite
long enough. What books I liked, I read; concerning my judgment on
this point, perhaps, (not altogether unwarrantably either,) quite as
good as his own. I dressed in what fashion I pleased--and wore my hair
in the style nature intended. At one determined stroke I broke the
thread-like chains which, from their very fineness, had been more
galling to me than links of iron. I could read by Harry's look of
astonishment what his thoughts were, as he saw these changes in
me--and it was with some anxiety, I do confess, that I awaited the
result; for all this time I loved him well, though my attachment was
_not_ so selfish in its natu