ak to him.

"Sensitive about proprieties," said the lady to herself, with some
feeling, as she stood looking down the room to where Ellis Whitford in
a group of young men and women was giving vent to his exuberant spirits
more noisily than befitted the place and occasion. "Mr. Elliott calls
things by dainty names."

"I call that disgraceful," remarked an elderly lady, in a severe tone,
as if replying to the other's thought.

"Young men will become a little gay on these occasions," said the
person to whom she had spoken, with some irony in her tone. "So Mr.
Elliott says."

"Mr. Elliott!" There was a tone of bitterness and rejection in the
speaker's voice. "Mr. Elliott had better give our young men a safer
example than he does. A little gay! A little drunk would be nearer the
truth."

"Oh dear! such a vulgar word! We don't use it in good society, you
know. It belongs to taverns and drinking-saloons--to coarse, common
people. You must say 'a little excited,' 'a little gay,' but not drunk.
That's dreadful!"

"Drunk!" said the other, with emphasis, but speaking low and for the
ear only of the lady with whom she was talking. "We understand a great
deal better the quality of a thing when we call it by its right name.
If a young man drinks wine or brandy until he becomes intoxicated, as
Whitford has done to-night, and we say he is drunk instead of
exhilarated or a little gay, we do something toward making his conduct
odious. We do not excuse, but condemn. We make it disgraceful instead
of palliating the offence."

The lady paused, when her companion said:

"Look! Blanche Birtwell is trying to quiet him. Did you know they were
engaged?"

"What!"

"Engaged."

"Then I pity her from my heart. A young man who hasn't self-control
enough to keep himself sober at an evening party can't be called a very
promising subject for a husband."

"She has placed her arm in his and is looking up into his face so
sweetly. What a lovely girl she is! There! he's quieter already; and
see, she is drawing him out of the group of young men and talking to
him in such a bright, animated way."

"Poor child! it makes my eyes wet; and this is her first humiliating
and painful duty toward her future husband. God pity and strengthen her
is my heartfelt prayer. She will have need, I fear, of more than human
help and comfort."

"You take the worst for granted?"

The lady drew a deep sigh:

"I fear the worst, and know something of what the