t you?" I asked, remembering the
conversation I had just overheard.

"Yes," she answered, and then speaking decidedly, added, "and I like
'poor devils,' as you call them: they are not so dreadfully conceited
as _some_ men are."

"I tell you what," I said--just for the purpose of getting her opinion
of myself, you know--"I am a clever fellow: I hope you like me."

She glanced round--I suppose to see if I was in earnest--then turning
away said, "Y-e-s, pretty well."

It was rough on a chap, but she looked so sweet as she said it, and
sat so very unconscious that I was looking at her, that I thought I
would give her a little advice. I could not get it out of my head how
Mrs. Stunner said she would end badly, and it seemed a pity for a
charming girl such as she was. So I said, persuasively, "Now, don't
you go and marry one of those poor chaps, Miss Blanche. You see, you
will be regularly unhappy, and all that sort of thing, if you do."

"How do you know?" she asked.

"Oh," I replied, not knowing what to to say for an instant, "I heard
it."

"Heard what?" she said, looking at me curiously.

"That you would do it, and would be unhappy."

"A report made to order by those good people whom you want me to take
pains to please. 'Tis a method to make a harmless rival of me. Rumor
that I am engaged, and to a man beneath me, and of course other
gentlemen will not pay me attention. Mean! mean! But no matter," she
continued after a moment: "it won't hurt me. I am not engaged, and
don't intend to be; and it is nothing new for me to know that the
world is not particularly truthful."

"But why not marry? You had better change your mind--indeed you had: I
advise you for your good."

"You say I must not select a poor man, and the rich require too much
devotion from the ladies. You gentlemen let us take all the trouble to
please: you present yourselves, and expect us to fall at your feet._I_
am waiting for a chevalier who will go the world over to win me--who
will consider it an honor if I finally accept him, instead of
fancying, that I am honored by his choice."

"I used to have ideas of that kind, but found them false. It _is_ an
honor to receive a proposal, you know. Every one thinks so, else they
would not tell of it and brag as they do. By being so unlike the rest
of the world you will end badly--indeed you will, Miss Blanche."

"Look for a moment at the case as I put it. A man asks me to marry
him: he likes me--thinks