mind became more staid, its changes
and convolutions less frequent. The goblins were replaced by glyptodons,
Perrault by Darwin. But the prismatic quality of her fancy remained
unimpaired. She garmented everyone with its rays. Those who were nearest
to her enjoyed the gayest hues; in others she looked steadfastly for the
best. And yet, in spite of this, or precisely on that account, no one
was ever better able to distort trifles into nuclei of doubt. In brief,
she was March one minute and May the next. Apropos of some
misunderstanding, her father said to her jestingly one day, "Eden, did
you ever hear of such a thing as hemiopia?" The girl shook her head.
"Well," he continued, "there is a disease of that name which affects the
eye in such a manner that only half the object looked at is seen. Don't
you think you had better consult an oculist?"

Meanwhile her education had been completed by Shakspere. Love she had
learned of Juliet, jealousy of Othello. But of despair Hamlet had been
incompetent to teach. She was instinct with generous indignations,
enthusiastic of great deeds, and through the quality of her temperament
unable to reason herself into an understanding of the base. When she
"came out" she found herself unable to share the excited interest which
girls of her age exhibited in Delmonico balls. At the dinners and dances
to which she was bidden, she was chilled at the discovery that
platitude reigned. As a rule, the younger men fought shy of her. She
acquired the reputation of making disquieting answers and remarks of
curious inappositeness. But now and then she met people that found her
singularly attractive and whose hearts went out to her at once, yet
these were always people with whom she fancied herself in sympathetic
rapport.

Among this class was a man who succeeded Amadis. His name was Dugald
Maule; he was six or seven years her senior, and by profession an
attorney and counsellor-at-law. It should be noted, however, that he did
not look like one. He looked like an athlete that had taken honors, a
man to be admired by women and respected by men. In private theatricals
he was much applauded. He had studied law in the hope of being judge,
and in being judge of pronouncing the death sentence. He could imagine
no superber role than that. To him, after months of self-examination,
Eden Menemon surrendered her heart. The surrender was indeed difficult,
but as surrenders go it was complete.

The threads by wh