ble faculty for drawing people out. What
was my witchcraft?"

I disclaimed all witchcraft, and told him it was only because I
quarrelled with people. A little wholesome opposition had warmed him
into quite a flight of fancy.

"If I could only,"----he began, hurriedly; but took out his watch, said
it was time for him to go, and went off quite hastily. It was very weak
in me, but I wished very much to know what he would have said.

The next time, he called a few moments to tell me that his
lady-visitors, with a friend of theirs, had come, and had expressed a
wish to make my acquaintance. He promised them that he would call and
let me know,--though he hoped I would not come, unless I felt inclined.
He was very absent-minded, and went off the moment I asked him where he
had left his good spirits. This made me a little cold to him when I
called on the ladies, for I found them all sitting after tea out at the
door. It was a miserably constrained affair, though we all tried to be
civil,--for I could see that both ladies were taking, or trying to take,
my measure, and it did not set me at ease in the least. But in the mean
time I had measured them; and as experience has confirmed that first
impression, I may as well sketch them here. I protest, in the first
place, against any imputation of prejudice or jealousy. I thought much
more charitably of them than others did.

Mrs. Winslow was one of those pleasant, well-bred ladies, who can look
at you until you are obliged to look away, contradict you flatly, and
say the most grossly impertinent things in the mildest voice and
choicest words. A woman of the world, without nobility enough to
appreciate a magnanimous thought or action, and with very narrow,
shallow views of everything about her, she had still some agreeable
traits of character,--much shrewd knowledge of the world, as she saw it,
some taste for Art, and an excellent judgment in relation to all things
appertaining to polite society. I had really some pleasant intercourse
with her, although I think she was one of the most insulting persons I
ever met. I made a point of never letting her get any advantage of me,
and so we got along very well. Whenever she had a chance, she was sure
to say something that would mortify or hurt me; and I never failed to
repay both principal and interest with a voice and face as smooth as
hers. And here let me say that there is no other way of dealing with
such people. Self-denial, modesty,