lie's voice
softened--"as young, oh! years younger than you! And everything
invariably goes wrong with his affairs," she continued briskly; "but he
is always good-tempered, and never neglects to be polite to the ladies.
My mother has been an invalid for ten years. We do all we can for her;
but, poor dear! she isn't much interested in us! Can you blame her? And
I have half a dozen dear, bad little brothers and sisters. We're all
exactly alike; we fight all the time and love one another to distraction.

"You see it's not a picture of a well-ordered household I'm drawing you.
Indeed it's a mystery how we ever get along at all; but we do, somehow;
and no one the worse. Fortunately there seems to be something about us
that people like. They just wag their heads and laugh and exclaim, 'Oh,
the Blands!' and don't expect anything better of us. Conversations are
started when some one comes in saying: 'Have you heard the latest about
the Blands?' I'm sure they would be disappointed if we ever reformed.
People have always been so kind to me"--Natalie's voice deepened
again--"Ah! so _very_ kind, it makes my heart swell and my eyelids
prickle when I think of it. I've been carried everywhere in luxury
like an heiress," she briskened, "and there is no doubt I have been
thoroughly spoiled."

Natalie paused awhile here; and Garth apprehended that, the prologue
finished, the story was about to commence.

"A man, the first, fell in love with me when I was eighteen--six years
ago," she presently resumed. "Of course I do not count all the dear,
foolish boys before that--they say in Millerton that the boys attach
themselves to me to finish their education--but that's all foolishness.
I'm so very fond of boys! I could laugh and hug them all! They're so--so
theatrical! But the man was different; he was fifteen years older
than I; and alas! another ne'er-do-weel! He had been a football and a
cricketing hero; he was very good-looking in a worn-out, dissipated kind
of a way. He had gone to the bad in all the usual ways I believe--even
dishonesty; though I didn't learn that until long afterward." The fun
had died out of Natalie's voice now. "It's a miserable, ordinary kind
of a story, isn't it?" she said deprecatingly. "Most girls go through
with it safely; but I--well I was the simple sprat that was caught!

"He was returning to Millerton after a long absence," she went on; "his
people were well known there. He appeared to be perfectly mad abo