-and Mr. Erle Palma smiled as benignly
as some cast-iron statue of Pluto, freshly painted white, and
glistening in the sunshine. _A propos!_ I asked him to-night if he
would loosen his martinet rein upon you, and permit you to make your
_debut_ in society as my bridesmaid? How those maddening white teeth
of his glittered, as he smiled approvingly at the proposition?
Whenever they gleam out, they remind me of a tiger preparing to
crunch the bones of a tender gazelle, or a bleating lamb. Now you
comprehend what brings me here at this unseasonable hour? Armed with
your noble guardian's sanction, I crave the honour of your services
as bridesmaid at my approaching nuptials. Your dress, dear, must be
gentian-coloured silk to match your eyes, and clouded over with
_tulle_ of the same hue, relieved by sprays of gentians with silver
leaves glittering with icicles, and you shall look on that occasion
as lovely as an orthodox Hebrew angel; or, what is far more stylish,
beautiful as ox-eyed Here poised above Olympos, watching old Zeus
flirt surreptitiously with Aphrodite! Will you be first bridesmaid?"

"No, I will not be your bridesmaid. I could never co-operate in the
unhallowed scheme of wedding a man whom you despise. Oh, Olga! do not
degrade yourself by such a mercenary traffic."

"My dear, uncontaminated innocent, don't you see that society, and
mamma, and Erle Palma have all conspired to make an Isaac of me?
Bound hand and foot, I lie on the Moriah of fashionable life; but the
grim fact stares me in the face, that no ram will be forthcoming when
the slaughter begins! No relenting hand will stay the uplifted knife.
Diana will not snatch me into Tauris, and mamma cannot sail
prosperously from the Aulis of Erle Palma's charity until I am
sacrificed. Ah! the pitying tenderness of maternal love!"

She spoke with intolerable bitterness, and Regina put one arm around
her.

"Olga, she loves you too well to doom you to lifelong misery. You
always talk so mockingly, and say so many queer things you do not
mean, that she does not realize your true sentiments. Show her your
heart, your real feelings, and she will never consent to see you
marry that man."

"Do you believe that I successfully mask my heart? Not from mamma,
not from Erle Palma. They know all its tortures, all its wild
desperate struggles, and they are confident that after awhile I shall
wear out my own opposition, and sullenly succumb to their wishes.
They have take