whether the best thing were not to take the first passable offer that
should present itself, marry and settle down, and so deprive herself of
the power of thinking about Pitt, and him of the fancy that she ever
had thought about him. Poor girl, she had verified the truth of the
word which speaks about going on hot coals; she had burned her feet.
She had never done it before; she had played with a dozen men at
different times, allowed them to come near enough to be looked at;
dallied with them, discussed, and rejected, successively, without her
own heart ever even coming in danger; as to danger to their's, that
indeed had not been taken into consideration, or had not excited any
scruple. Now, now, the fire bit her, and she could not stifle it; and a
grave doubt came over her whether even that expedient of marriage might
be found able to stifle it. She went away from Seaforth a few days
after Pitt's departure, a sadder woman than she had come to it, though,
I fear, scarce a wiser.

On her way to Washington she tarried a few days in New York; and there
it chanced that she had a meeting which, in the young lady's then state
of mind, had a tremendous interest for her.

Society in New York at that day was very little like society there now.
Even granting that the same principles of human nature underlay its
developments, the developments were different. Small companies, even of
fashionable people, could come together for an evening; dancing,
although loved and practised, did not quite exclude conversation;
supper was a far less magnificent affair; and fashion itself was much
more necessarily and universally dependent on the accessories of birth,
breeding, and education, than is the case at present. It was known who
everybody was; parvenus were few; and there was still a flavour left of
old-world traditions and colonial antecedents. So, when Miss Frere was
invited to one of the best houses in the city to spend the evening, she
was not surprised to find only a moderate little company assembled, and
dresses and appointments on an easy and unostentatious footing, which
now is nearly unheard of. There was elegance enough, however, both in
the dresses and persons of many of those present; and Betty was quite
in her element, finding herself as usual surrounded by attentive and
admiring eyes, and able to indulge her love of conversation; for this
young lady liked talking better than dancing. Indeed, there was no
dancing in the earl