ent seemed perfectly well acquainted with him. She had
discovered that his name was Richard, that he had a sister Kate, who
called him Dick, that he was as yet possessor of his own heart, but was in
danger of losing it! The compliment Fanny very generously gave to her
sister Julia, because she observed that Mr. Wilmot's eyes were often
directed toward the corner where the dark beauty sat, silent and
immovable.

Julia had taken but little part in the conversation and Mr. Wilmot's
efforts to "draw her out" had proved ineffectual. She felt piqued that
Fanny should engross so much attention and resolved on revenge; so she
determined to show Mr. Wilmot that she could talk but not upon such silly
subjects as pleased Fanny. Accordingly, when books were mentioned, she
seemed suddenly aroused into life. She was really very intelligent and a
very good scholar. She had a great taste for reading, and what books she
could not prevail on her father to buy, she would borrow, so she had a
tolerably good knowledge of all the standard works. Mr. Wilmot was
surprised and pleased to find her so well informed and in the spirited
conversation which followed poor Fanny was cast entirely into the
background.

Fanny, however, attributed it to her sister's superior knowledge of Latin,
and inwardly "thanked her stars" that she knew nothing of that language
further than the verb Amo, to love. The practical part of that verb she
understood, even if she did not its conjugation. She sat quietly listening
to Mr. Wilmot and her sister, but her cogitations were far different from
what Julia's had been.

Fanny was building castles--in all of which Mr. Wilmot and Julia were the
hero and heroine. She gazed admiringly at her sister, whose face grew
handsomer each moment as she became more animated, and she thought, "What
a nice-looking couple Julia and Mr. Wilmot would make! And they would be
so happy, too--that is if sister didn't get angry, and I am sure she
wouldn't with Mr. Wilmot. Then they would have a nicer house than this old
shell, and perhaps they would let me live with them!"

Here her reverie was interrupted by Mr. Wilmot, who asked her if she ever
studied Latin. Fanny hesitated; she did not wish to confess that she had
once studied it six months, but at the end of that time she was so
heartily tired of its "long-tailed verbs," as she called them, that she
had thrown her grammar out of the window and afterward given it to Aunt
Judy to start