I should n't be fit to give lessons if I was up late, should I?
And how far would my earnings go towards dress, carriages, and all the little expenses which would come if I set up for a young lady in society?
I can't do both, and I 'm not going to try, but I can pick up bits of fun as I go along, and be contented with free concerts and lectures, seeing you pretty often, and every Sunday Will is to spend with me, so I shall have quite as much dissipation as is good for me." "If you don't come to my parties, I 'll never forgive you," said Fanny, as Polly paused, while Tom chuckled inwardly at the idea of calling visits from a brother "dissipation." "Any small party, where it will do to wear a plain black silk, I can come to; but the big ones must n't be thought of, thank you." It was charming to see the resolution of Polly's face when she said that; for she knew her weakness, and beyond that black silk she had determined not to go.

Fanny said no more, for she felt quite sure that Polly would relent when the time came, and she planned to give her a pretty dress for a Christmas present, so that one excuse should be removed.
"I say, Polly, won't you give some of us fellows music lessons?
Somebody wants me to play, and I 'd rather learn of you than any Senor Twankydillo," said Tom, who did n't find the conversation interesting.
"Oh, yes; if any of you boys honestly want to learn, and will behave yourselves, I 'll take you; but I shall charge extra," answered Polly, with a wicked sparkle of the eye, though her face was quite sober, and her tone delightfully business-like.
"Why, Polly, Tom is n't a boy; he 's twenty, and he says I must treat him with respect.

Besides, he 's engaged, and does put on such airs," broke in Maud who regarded her brother as a venerable being.
"Who is the little girl ?" asked Polly taking the news as a joke.
"Trix; why, did n't you know it ?" answered Maud, as if it had been an event of national importance.
"No! is it true, Fan ?" and Polly turned to her friend with a face full of surprise, while Tom struck an imposing attitude, and affected absence of mind.
"I forgot to tell you in my last letter; it 's just out, and we don't like it very well," observed Fanny, who would have preferred to be engaged first herself.
"It 's a very nice thing, and I am perfectly satisfied," announced Mrs.
Shaw, rousing from a slight doze.
"Polly looks as if she did n't believe it.

Have n't I the appearance of 'the happiest man alive' ?" asked Tom, wondering if it could be pity which he saw in the steady eyes fixed on him.
"No, I don't think you have," she said, slowly.
"How the deuce should a man look, then ?" cried Tom, rather nettled at her sober reception of the grand news.
"As if he had learned to care for some one a great deal more than for himself," answered Polly, with sudden color in her cheeks, and a sudden softening of the voice, as her eyes turned away from Tom, who was the picture of a complacent dandy, from the topmost curl of his auburn head to the tips of his aristocratic boots.
"Tommy 's quenched; I agree with you, Polly; I never liked Trix, and I hope it 's only a boy-and-girl fancy, that will soon die a natural death," said Mr.Shaw, who seemed to find it difficult to help falling into a brown study, in spite of the lively chatter going on about him.
Shaw, Jr., being highly incensed at the disrespectful manner in which his engagement was treated, tried to assume a superb air of indifference, and finding that a decided failure, was about to stroll out of the room with a comprehensive nod, when his mother called after him: "Where are you going, dear ?" "To see Trix, of course.

Good-by, Polly," and Mr.Thomas departed, hoping that by the skillful change of tone, from ardent impatience to condescending coolness, he had impressed one hearer at least with the fact that he regarded Trix as the star of his existence, and Polly as a presuming little chit.
If he could have heard her laugh, and Fanny's remarks, his wrath would have boiled over; fortunately he was spared the trial, and went away hoping that the coquetries of his Trix would make him forget Polly's look when she answered his question.
"My dear, that boy is the most deluded creature you ever saw," began Fanny, as soon as the front door banged.