re withdrawn. She missed
them bitterly.

It almost seemed to her as if everything were withdrawn from her.
Father, and mother, sister, and even her warm-hearted brother, were all
more or less annoyed at her course. Charlie had been betrayed into more
positive sharpness than this favorite sister had ever felt from him
before. He felt that his friend Col. Baker had been ill-treated.

There was a very sore spot about this matter for Flossy. The truth was,
she could not help seeing that in a sense her father was right; she had
brought it on herself; not lately, not since her utter change of views
and aims, but long before that. With what satisfaction had she allowed
her name to be coupled familiarly with that of Col. Baker; how much she
had enjoyed his exclusive attentions; not that she really and heartily
liked him, with a liking that made her willing to think of him as
belonging to her forever; she had chosen, rather, not to allow herself
to think of any such time; she had contented herself with saying that
she was too young to think of such things; that she was not obliged to
settle that question till the time came.

But, mind you, all the time she chose to allow, and enjoy, and encourage
by her smiles and her evident pleasure in them, very special
attentions, that gave other people liberty to speak of them almost as
one. To call it by a very plain name, which Flossy hated, and which made
her cheek glow as she forced herself to say it of herself, she had been
flirting with Col. Baker. It isn't a nice word; I don't wonder that she
hated it. Yet so long as young ladies continue to be guilty of the sort
of conduct that can only be described by that unpleasant and coarse
sounding word, I am afraid it will be used.

All that was over now, at least it was over as much as Flossy could make
it; but there remained an uncomfortable sense that she had wronged a man
who honestly loved her; not intentionally--no decent woman does
that--but thoughtlessly; so many silly girls do that. She had lost her
influence over him now; rather, she had been obliged to put herself in a
position to lose all influence. She might have been his true, faithful
friend now, and helped him up to a higher manhood, only by her former
folly she had put it out of her power. These were not pleasant
reflections. Then there was no denying that she felt very desolate.

"A forlorn friendless creature," her mother had said she would become,
or words to that eff