y, Isadore
Hamel was, at the present moment, the one hero walking the face of
this sublunary globe; and to Ayala, as we all know, Jonathan Stubbs
was an Angel of Light, and, therefore, more even than a hero. As each
spoke, the "He's" intended took a different personification; so that
to any one less interested than the young ladies themselves there
might be some confusion as to which "He" might at that moment be
under discussion. "It was bad," said Lucy, "when Uncle Tom told him
to sell those magnificent conceptions of his brain by auction!"

"I did feel for him certainly," said Ayala.

"And then when he was constrained to say that he would take me at
once without any preparation because Aunt Emmeline wanted me to go,
I don't suppose any man ever behaved more beautifully than he did."

"Yes indeed," said Ayala. And then she felt herself constrained to
change the subject by the introduction of an exaggerated superlative
in her sister's narrative. Hamel, no doubt, had acted beautifully,
but she was not disposed to agree that nothing could be more
beautiful. "Oh, Lucy," she said, "I was so miserable when he went
away after that walk in the wood. I thought he never would come back
again when I had behaved so badly. But he did. Was not that grand in
him?"

"I suppose he was very fond of you."

"I hope he was. I hope he is. But what should I have done if he had
not come back? No other man would have come back after that. You
never behaved unkindly to Isadore?"

"I think he would have come back a thousand times," said Lucy; "only
I cannot imagine that I should ever have given him the necessity of
coming back even a second. But then I had known him so much longer."

"It wasn't that I hadn't known him long enough," said Ayala. "I
seemed to know all about him almost all at once. I knew how good he
was, and how grand he was, long before I had left the Marchesa up in
London. But I think it astounded me that such a one as he should care
for me." And so it went on through an entire morning, each of the
sisters feeling that she was bound to listen with rapt attention to
the praises of the other's "him" if she wished to have an opportunity
of singing those of her own.

But Lucy's marriage was to come first by more than two months, and
therefore in that matter she was allowed precedence. And at her
marriage Ayala would be present, whereas with Ayala's Lucy would
have no personal concern. Though she did think that Uncle Tom had