y notion. And even
Frank, her once ideal of all that was graceful and noble-looking,
how would he pass muster beside these essenced "fashionables" who now
surrounded her! She endeavored to console herself by thinking that her
father would have despised the lounging, unmanly lives they led, that
Ellen would have retired in bashful modesty from a society whose tone
of freedom and license would have shocked her, and that Frank would
have found no companionship in a class whose pleasures lay only in
dissipation; and yet all her casuistry could not reassure her. The
fascinations amid which she lived were stronger than her reason.

She became first aware of the great change in herself on recognizing
how differently a letter from home affected her to what it had done some
months before. At first she would have hastened to her room, and locked
the door, in an ecstasy of delight to be alone with dearest Nelly, to
commune with her own sweet sister in secret, to hang on every line,
every word, with delight, fancying herself once more with arms clasped
around her, or bending down beside her cheek as she leaned over her
work-table. How every little detail would move her; how every allusion
would bring up home before her, the snug little chamber of an evening,
as the bright fire glowed on the hearth, and Nelly brought out her tools
for modelling, while Hanserl was searching for some passage, a line, or
a description that Nelly wanted; and then the little discussions that
would ensue as to the shape of some weapon, or the fashion of some
costume of a past age, so often broken in upon by her father, whose
drolleries would set them laughing!

With what interest, too, she would follow each trifling occurrence of
their daily life; the progress Nelly was making in her last group; its
difficulties how would she ponder over, and wonder how to meet them!
With what eager curiosity would she read the commonest details of the
household, the dreary burden of a winter's tale! and how her heart
bounded to hear of Frank the soldier although all the tidings were that
he was with his regiment, but "spoke little of himself or the service."

Now, however, the glow of delight which a letter used to bring up was
changed for a deep blush of anxiety and shame, anxiety, she knew not
wherefore or how; of shame, because Nelly's writing on the address was
quaint and old-fashioned; while the paper and the seal bespoke the very
lowliest acquaintance with episto