So there!" "Well," she admitted hesitatingly, "I said to him something like what I have to you, that it seemed to me that Mr.Lenox came very often, and that I did not believe it was all on his account, and that he" (won't somebody please invent another pronoun ?) "always stayed when you were at home--" "-- and," broke in her sister, "that you were afraid my young affections were being engaged, and that, after all, we didn't know much if anything about the young man, or, perhaps, that he was forming a hopeless attachment, and so on." "No," said Mrs.Carling, "I didn't say that exactly.

I--" "Didn't you, really ?" said Mary teasingly.

"One ought to be explicit in such cases, don't you think?
Well, what did Julius say?
Was he very much concerned ?" Mrs.Carling's face colored faintly under her sister's raillery, and she gave a little embarrassed laugh.
"Come, now," said the girl relentlessly, "what did he say ?" "Well," answered Mrs.Carling, "I must admit that he said 'Pooh!' for one thing, and that you were your own mistress, and, so far as he had seen, you were very well qualified to manage your own affairs." Her sister clapped her hands.

"Such discrimination have I not seen," she exclaimed, "no, not in Israel! What else did he say ?" she demanded, with a dramatic gesture.

"Let us know the worst." Mrs.Carling laughed a little.