can tell her the catastrophe? It is _novels_
that give false views of life. Is there not an eternal novel, with all
these false, cheating views, written in the breast of every beautiful
and attractive girl whose witcheries make every man that comes near her
talk like a fool? Like a sovereign princess, she never hears the truth,
unless it be from the one manly man in a thousand, who understands both
himself and her. From all the rest she hears only flatteries more or
less ingenious, according to the ability of the framer. Compare, for
instance, what Tom Brown says to little Seraphina at the party to-night,
with what Tom Brown sober says to sober sister Maria _about_ her
to-morrow. Tom remembers that he was a fool last night, and knows what
he thinks and always has thought to-day; but pretty Seraphina thinks he
adores her, so that no matter what she does he will never see a flaw,
she is sure of that,--poor little puss! She does not know that
philosophic Tom looks at her as he does at a glass of champagne, or a
dose of exhilarating gas, and calculates how much it will do for him to
take of the stimulus without interfering with his serious and settled
plans of life, which, of course, he doesn't mean to give up for her. The
one-thousand-and-first man in creation is he that can feel the
fascination but will not flatter, and that tries to tell to the little
tyrant the rare word of truth that may save her; he is, as we say, the
one-thousand-and-first. Well, as Sally sat with her great dark eyes
dreamily following the ship, she mentally thought over all the
compliments Moses had paid her, expressed or understood, and those of
all her other admirers, who had built up a sort of cloud-world around
her, so that her little feet never rested on the soil of reality. Sally
was shrewd and keen, and had a native mother-wit in the discernment of
spirits, that made her feel that somehow this was all false coin; but
still she counted it over, and it looked so pretty and bright that she
sighed to think it was not real.

"If it only had been," she thought; "if there were only any truth to the
creature; he is so handsome,--it's a pity. But I do believe in his
secret heart he is in love with Mara; he is in love with some one, I
know. I have seen looks that must come from something real; but they
were not for me. I have a kind of power over him, though," she said,
resuming her old wicked look, "and I'll puzzle him a little, and torment
him. He s