e fact.

Moses therefore pursued the line of tactics for such cases made and
provided, and strove to awaken jealousy in Mara by paying marked and
violent attentions to Sally. He went there evening after evening,
leaving Mara to sit alone at home. He made secrets with her, and alluded
to them before Mara. He proposed calling his new vessel the Sally
Kittridge; but whether all these things made Mara jealous or not, he
could never determine. Mara had no peculiar gift for acting, except in
this one point; but here all the vitality of nature rallied to her
support, and enabled her to preserve an air of the most unperceiving
serenity. If she shed any tears when she spent a long, lonesome evening,
she was quite particular to be looking in a very placid frame when Moses
returned, and to give such an account of the books, or the work, or
paintings which had interested her, that Moses was sure to be vexed.
Never were her inquiries for Sally more cordial,--never did she seem
inspired by a more ardent affection for her.

Whatever may have been the result of this state of things in regard to
Mara, it is certain that Moses succeeded in convincing the common fame
of that district that he and Sally were destined for each other, and the
thing was regularly discussed at quilting frolics and tea-drinkings
around, much to Miss Emily's disgust and Aunt Roxy's grave satisfaction,
who declared that "Mara was altogether too good for Moses Pennel, but
Sally Kittridge would make him stand round,"--by which expression she
was understood to intimate that Sally had in her the rudiments of the
same kind of domestic discipline which had operated so favorably in the
case of Captain Kittridge.

These things, of course, had come to Mara's ears. She had overheard the
discussions on Sunday noons as the people between meetings sat over
their doughnuts and cheese, and analyzed their neighbors' affairs, and
she seemed to smile at them all. Sally only laughed, and declared that
it was no such thing; that she would no more marry Moses Pennel, or any
other fellow, than she would put her head into the fire. What did she
want of any of them? She knew too much to get married,--that she did.
She was going to have her liberty for one while yet to come, etc., etc.;
but all these assertions were of course supposed to mean nothing but the
usual declarations in such cases. Mara among the rest thought it quite
likely that this thing was yet to be.

So she struggled a