me from a wealthy and aristocratic family.
While it surprised her a good deal, it also awakened her admiration for
that girl still more. The one dread of her life had been that her
impetuous son would make an unfortunate alliance and disgrace the
family. She made but little reply to his love-lorn tale, except to laugh
at him and assure him he would soon overcome it; but that night in the
privacy of her room she questioned Blanch in a sly way very amusing to
that shrewd daughter.

"Frank has not made me his confidant," Blanch replied, "only I noticed
he was very attentive to Miss Page, while she seemed to avoid being
left alone with him a moment. She is one of the sweetest and prettiest
girls I've met in a long time, and also one of the proudest. I quite
fell in love with her at sight, and am sure Frank has; but so far as I
saw, she gave him no encouragement. She is poor, pretty, and proud; and
that tells the whole story. I imagined she believed she would not be
welcomed by you, and while I begged her to come and visit me, I doubt if
she does." (A fib.)

This practically ended the first part of the play, though Frank noticed
his mother watched him more closely and showed an increased tenderness
towards him.

"Keep on courting mamma," Blanch whispered to him one evening when they
were alone, "she is watching you to see if you mean it, and is both
surprised and pleased. As I expected, she has quizzed me, and if you
convince her you are in earnest, and are really the discarded and
forlorn lover you affect to be, it will end by her writing your sweet
Alice a personal letter of invitation to visit us. Seriously, too, I
believe that will be the only thing that will bring your schoolma'am to
Boston, or at least to our house."

When the last of August came and the Nasons returned to Boston, Frank
and his mother were far better friends, and the most surprised one of
the four was Edith, who was not in the secret.

"What has come over Frank?" she said to Blanch one day; "he has never
been so well-behaved before in his life. First he quit idling and began
to study law as if he meant to be somebody; then he deserted his crowd
of cronies for us and has acted as if we were his sole care in life ever
since! What is the meaning of it, Blanch?"

"I haven't the least idea," answered that arch plotter, "and it seems so
good to have him devoted to us that I am not going to ask any questions.
I am not disposed to act as foolish as the