not because she was an angel, but
because it was the fashion,--wings that sprouted at her fair, plump,
shapely shoulders and billowed out like balloons. Her brother Cary,
above referred to, a sixteen-year-old specimen of Young American
impudence and independence, said further of her, in the spring of '94,
that if Floy's sleeves were only inflated with gas she could float on
air as easily as she did on water, and on water Miss Allison was
buoyancy personified. On water, too, and in her dainty bathing-dress,
Miss Allison's wings were discarded and her true proportions more
accurately defined. She was anything but slender. She was simply
deliciously, exquisitely rounded _now_; but the question which so
disturbed her feminine friends as to call for perennial repetition was,
What _would_ she be a few years hence? This, however, was a matter that
seemed to give the lady in question no uneasiness whatever. Certainly it
resulted in no loss of flesh. Perhaps it might have been better for her
future figure if it had. With her perfect health, digestion, and
disposition, there was absolutely no way of worrying off a pound or two
a week. She was the soul of good nature and content. She had an
indulgent father, a luxurious home, abundant wealth, an unimpeachable
complexion, character, and social position. She had a swarm of enviously
devoted girl friends on the one hand and selfishly devoted male admirers
on the other, or on both if she chose. She was absolutely without a mean
or unkind thought of anybody. She was full of every generous impulse.
She was lazy and energetic by turns, had been a romping idler in her
earlier school-days, and had been polished off and finished in an
expensive Eastern establishment without finishing anything herself. She
had lived an almost unshadowed life, had laughed off a dozen lovers
when she went abroad in '93, and had then fallen in with her fate across
the water.

There was really no excuse for her falling in love with Mr. Floyd
Forrest. An utter dissimilarity to her other admirers, a romantic and
somewhat absurd adventure, and, above all, proximity, were what did it.
He must have been over ten years her senior; she was barely twenty when
they met. He was tall, slender, and strong, with deep burning brown eyes
and heavy brows and lashes. She was short and plump and distractingly
fair and fresh and blue-eyed,--big melting blue eyes, too, they were.
His lips were well-nigh hidden by a heavy moustache;