have in common. Murray Bradshaw was ready to
land his fish now, but he was not quite sure that she was yet hooked,
and he had a feeling that by this time she knew every fly in his book.
However, as he had made up his mind not to wait another day, he
addressed himself to the trial before him with a determination to
succeed, if any means at his command would insure success. He arrayed
himself with faultless elegance: nothing must be neglected on such an
occasion. He went forth firm and grave as a general going into a battle
where all is to be lost or won. He entered the blazing saloon with the
unfailing smile upon his lips, to which he set them as he set his watch
to a particular hour and minute.

The rooms were pretty well filled when he arrived and made his bow
before the blazing, rustling, glistening, waving, blushing appearance
under which palpitated, with the pleasing excitement of the magic scene
over which its owner presided, the heart of Mrs. Clymer Ketchum. He
turned to Myrtle Hazard, and if he had ever doubted which way his
inclinations led him, he could doubt no longer. How much dress and how
much light can a woman bear? That is the way to measure her beauty. A
plain girl in a simple dress, if she has only a pleasant voice, may seem
almost a beauty in the rosy twilight. The nearer she comes to being
handsome, the more ornament she will bear, and the more she may defy the
sunshine or the chandelier. Murray Bradshaw was fairly dazzled with the
brilliant effect of Myrtle in full dress. He did not know before what
handsome arms she had,--Judith Pride's famous arms, which the
high-colored young men in top-boots used to swear were the handsomest
pair in New England, right over again. He did not know before with what
defiant effect she would light up, standing as she did directly under a
huge lustre, in full flower of flame, like a burning azalea. He was not
a man who intended to let his sentiments carry him away from the serious
interests of his future, yet, as he looked upon Myrtle Hazard, his heart
gave one throb which made him feel in every pulse that this was a woman
who in her own right, simply as a woman, could challenge the homage of
the proudest young man of her time. He hardly knew till this moment how
much of passion mingled with other and calmer motives of admiration. He
could say _I love you_ as truly as such a man could ever speak these
words, meaning that he admired her, that he was attracted to her, tha