elves by proceeding to
talk a whole torrent. Mrs. Lawrence said a great deal in the course of
this initial interview, and followed it up with a very great deal more.
She considered Mr. Forrest's conduct worse than incomprehensible. What
business had he to tell a girl his heart was buried in the past and pay
her all lover-like attentions in the present? "He hasn't," said Miss
Allison, promptly and flatly. "He has simply been kind and friendly. He
would have been discourteous, un-American, had he done anything less."
It wasn't he who told her he never had cared or would care for any one
after Miss Hosmer; Kate Lenox told her that, and so did other girls
here. When, then, did Mr. Forrest inform her of his broken engagement?
asked Aunt Lawrence. "On the steamer coming home," said Florence. "He
couldn't help himself. I met Mrs. Stuyvesant in Washington last
winter,--such a lovely woman,--and some one said she was once engaged to
an army officer and it was broken off; she found she didn't love him
enough to leave her luxurious home to live on the frontier among
Indians. I don't know how her name came up, or what prompted me to talk
as I did. I was saying that I thought her cruel, heartless, and that she
should have considered all that before ever she engaged herself to him;
and then he simply put up his hand, saying, 'Do not speak of it, Miss
Allison: I was the man.' It fairly took my breath away," said
Florence,--which her aunt could hardly believe,--"and I didn't know what
to say; and then he went on quietly to speak of her in the most
beautiful way, and assured me there were other and graver reasons which
led to her decision, some of which, at least, he could not gainsay, and
Mr. Stuyvesant's wealth and social position had very little to do with
the fact of her finally marrying him, as she did, and not until several
years after the engagement was broken."

Indeed, Miss Allison waxed tearfully eloquent in defence of Mr. Forrest,
whom she declared high-minded and honorable and manly. He wasn't in love
with her, nor she with him,--not a bit; but she honored him and
respected him and liked him better than any man she knew, and papa
thought him such a superior man, and Cary was devoted to him, and he
had been of infinite service to them abroad, and was welcome now and
should be welcome any time--any time--to their doors, and if Aunt
Lawrence or anybody spoke ill of him to her she'd defend him to the
bitter end, and as for hinti