precocious little
creatures, finely finished, finely dressed, quick-witted, graceful, and
bewitching. But at that age Anne Douglas was a--"

"Well, what?"

"A mollusk," said the chaplain, bringing out the word emphatically.

"And what is she now, doctor?"

"A promise."

"To be magnificently fulfilled in the future?"

"That depends upon fate, madam; or rather circumstances."

"For my part, I would rather be fulfilled, although not perhaps
magnificently, than remain even the most glorious promise," said Mrs.
Rankin, laughing.

The fort ladies liked the old chaplain, and endured his long monologues
by adding to them running accompaniments of their own. To bright society
women there is nothing so unendurable as long arguments or dissertations
on one subject. Whether from want of mental training, or from impatience
of delay, they are unwilling to follow any one line of thought for more
than a minute or two; they love to skim at random, to light and fly away
again, to hover, to poise, and then dart upward into space like so many
humming-birds. Listen to a circle of them sitting chatting over their
embroidery round the fire or on a piazza; no man with a thoroughly
masculine mind can follow them in their mental dartings hither and
thither. He has just brought his thoughts to bear upon a subject, and is
collecting what he is going to say, when, behold! they are miles away,
and he would be considered stupid to attempt to bring them back. His
mental processes are slow and lumbering compared with theirs. And when,
once in a while, a woman appears who likes to search out a subject, she
finds herself out of place and bewildered too, often a target for the
quick tongues and light ridicule of her companions. If she likes to
generalize, she is lost. Her companions never wish to generalize; they
want to know not the general view of a subject, but what Mrs. Blank or
Mr. Star thinks of it. Parents, if you have a daughter of this kind, see
that she spends in her youth a good portion of every day with the most
volatile swift-tongued maidens you can find; otherwise you leave her
without the current coin of the realm in which she must live and die,
and no matter if she be fairly a gold mine herself, her wealth is
unavailable.

Spring burst upon the island with sudden glory; the maples showed all at
once a thousand perfect little leaflets, the rings of the juniper
brightened, the wild larches beckoned with their long green fingers fr