er mind. Nothing shall ever make me speak to him again;--not if
he married her three times over; nor to her. She is a nasty, sly,
good-for-nothing thing!"

"But, Bella--"

"Don't talk to me, mamma. There never was such a thing done before
since people--were--people at all. She has been doing it all the
time. I know she has."

Nevertheless Arabella did sit down to tea with the two lovers that
night. There was a terrible scene between her and Camilla; but
Camilla held her own; and Arabella, being the weaker of the two, was
vanquished by the expenditure of her own small energies. Camilla
argued that as her sister's chance was gone, and as the prize had
come in her own way, there was no good reason why it should be lost
to the family altogether, because Arabella could not win it. When
Arabella called her a treacherous vixen and a heartless, profligate
hussy, she spoke out freely, and said that she wasn't going to be
abused. A gentleman to whom she was attached had asked her for her
hand, and she had given it. If Arabella chose to make herself a fool
she might,--but what would be the effect? Simply that all the world
would know that she, Arabella, was disappointed. Poor Bella at last
gave way, put on her discarded chignon, and came down to tea. Mr.
Gibson was already in the room when she entered it. "Arabella," he
said, getting up to greet her, "I hope you will congratulate me."
He had planned his little speech and his manner of making it, and
had wisely decided that in this way might he best get over the
difficulty.

"Oh yes;--of course," she said, with a little giggle, and then a sob,
and then a flood of tears.

"Dear Bella feels these things so strongly," said Mrs. French.

"We have never been parted yet," said Camilla. Then Arabella tapped
the head of the sofa three or four times sharply with her knuckles.
It was the only protest against the reading of the scene which
Camilla had given of which she was capable at that moment. After that
Mrs. French gave out the tea, Arabella curled herself upon the sofa
as though she were asleep, and the two lovers settled down to proper
lover-like conversation.

The reader may be sure that Camilla was not slow in making the fact
of her engagement notorious through the city. It was not probably
true that the tidings of her success had anything to do with Miss
Stanbury's illness; but it was reported by many that such was the
case. It was in November that the arrangement was made