g hair.

CHAPTER XIII.

"So on the tip of his subduing tongue
All kinds of arguments and questions deep."

--SHAKSPEARE.

"What is the use of so much talking? Is not this wild rose sweet
without a comment?"--HAZLITT.

Early the next morning Miss Vanhorn, accompanied by her niece, drove off
on an all-day botanizing expedition. Miss Vanhorn understood the worth
of being missed. At sunset she returned; and the girl she brought back
with her was on the verge of despair. For the old woman had spent the
hours in making her doubt herself in every possible way, besides
covering her with ridicule concerning the occurrences of the day before.
It was late when they entered the old ball-room, Anne looking newly
youthful and painfully shy; as they crossed the floor she did not raise
her eyes. Dexter was dancing with Rachel, whose soft arms were visible
under her black gauze, encircled with bands of old gold. Anne was
dressed in a thick white linen fabric (Miss Vanhorn having herself
selected the dress and ordered her to wear it), and appeared more like a
school-girl than ever. Miss Vanhorn, raising her eye-glass, had selected
her position on entering, like a general on the field: Anne was placed
next to Isabel on the wooden bench that ran round the room. And
immediately Miss Varce seemed to have grown suddenly old. In addition,
her blonde beauty was now seen to be heightened by art. Isabel herself
did not dream of this. Hardly any woman, whose toilet is a study, can
comprehend beauty in unattractive unfashionable attire. So she kept her
seat unconsciously, sure of her Paris draperies, while the superb youth
of Anne, heightened by the simplicity of the garb she wore, reduced the
other woman, at least in the eyes of all the men present, to the
temporary rank of a faded wax doll.

Dexter soon came up and asked Anne to dance. She replied, in a low voice
and without looking up, that she would rather not; her arm was still
painful.

"Go," said Miss Vanhorn, overhearing, "and do not be absurd about your
arm. I dare say Miss Morle's aches quite as badly." She was almost
always severe with her niece in Dexter's presence: could it have been
that she wished to excite his sympathy?

Anne rose in silence; they did not dance, but, after walking up and down
the room once or twice, went out on the piazza. The windows were open:
it was the custom to sit here and look through at the dancers within.
They sat