that a man who has had the best that the world can give, and has really
some fine qualities of his own, can be such a poor devil, after all,
then _I_ don't. She may be the wiser for it, but you know she won't be
the happier."

"O _don't_, Dick, don't speak seriously! It's so dreadful from _you_. If
you feel so about it, why don't you do something."

"O yes, there's a fine opening. We know, because we know ever so much
more, how the case really is; but the way it seems to stand is, that
Kitty couldn't bear to have him show civility to his friends, and ran
away, and then wouldn't give him a chance to explain. Besides, what
could I do under any circumstances?"

"Well, Dick, of course you're right, and I wish I could see things as
clearly as you do. But I really believe Kitty's glad to be out of it."

"What?" thundered the colonel.

"I think Kitty's secretly relieved to have it all over. But you needn't
_stun_ me."

"You _do_?" The colonel paused as if to gain force enough for a reply.
But after waiting, nothing whatever came to him, and he wound up his
watch.

"To be sure," added Mrs. Ellison thoughtfully, after a pause, "she's
giving up a great deal; and she'll probably never have such another
chance as long as she lives."

"I hope she won't," said the colonel.

"O, you needn't pretend that a high position and the social advantages
he could have given her are to be despised."

"No, you heartless worldling; and neither are peace of mind, and
self-respect, and whole feelings, and your little joke."

"O, you--you sickly sentimentalist!"

"That's what they used to call us in the good old abolition days,"
laughed the colonel; and the two being quite alone, they made their
peace with a kiss, and were as happy for the moment as if they had
thereby assuaged Kitty's grief and mortification.

"Besides, Fanny," continued the colonel, "though I'm not much on
religion, I believe these things are ordered."

"Don't be blasphemous, Colonel Ellison!" cried his wife, who represented
the church if not religion in her family. "As if Providence had anything
to do with love-affairs!"

"Well, I won't; but I will say that if Kitty turned her back on Mr.
Arbuton and the social advantages he could offer her, it's a sign she
wasn't fit for them. And, poor thing, if she doesn't know how much she's
lost, why she has the less to grieve over. If she thinks she couldn't be
happy with a husband who would keep her snubbed and frightene