all the more spontaneous from
the fact, that, if some of my former acquaintances were as frivolous as
ever, they had learned to conceal their emptiness by an adaptability
which made them agreeable companions. There was a keen satisfaction,
too, in the consciousness which became mine, as I went from house to
house during the following weeks, that I excelled the most of them in
the power to make myself agreeable. The reading and study of the past
few years enabled me to shine as a conversationalist, and in my present
regenerated mood I had, on the other hand, no temptation to play the
pedant or moralist. I tried to be amusing and to appear clever; and I
was pleased to read a favorable verdict upon my effort in the attentions
of men as a rule unsusceptible, and in the amazed countenance of Aunt
Helen.

Her satisfaction at the course of events was not disguised; but she was
diplomatic enough, in her conversations with me, not to take to
herself the glory of the evolution. She contented herself by way of
recrimination in such expressions as--"To think, Virginia, how near you
came to throwing yourself away!" and, "It takes a great load off my mind
to see you yourself once again." But after the first few entertainments
at which we were present together, I often caught her looking at me with
a sort of wonder, as though she could scarcely believe that the
brilliant young person whose reappearance in the social world was the
sensation of a successful season could really be her niece.

One evening as we were sitting after our return from an especially
pleasant dinner-party, Aunt Helen surveyed me contentedly through her
eye-glass, and said:--

"I have never seen you look or appear better in your life than you did
to-night, my dear. Your dress set to perfection, and you were very
agreeable."

I dropped a little curtsy in return.

"Yes," she continued, "I will not disguise that there was a time about a
year ago when I felt very anxious in regard to you. Eccentricity, as I
have often told you before, is all very well when one has nothing to
lose and everything to gain by it. I can understand how a young person
with no antecedents or opportunities for getting on in society might
secure a temporary advantage by making herself an object of remark. But
in your case it has always seemed to me wholly inexplicable. Every one
knows who you are and all about you, already. However, all is well that
ends well, and it is an unspeakable re