The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 12, No. 72, October, 1863

mprovements originate with the parties themselves, I had an inability to interfere usefully. I could talk to her a little,-not at all to him. He seemed fond and proud of h

im, and so did not try to hit her apprehension, much less to rais

of occupying herself with the external, she had not only a keen sense of the beautiful in outward form, but as ready a perception of character as could consist with a want of tact. Adaptation she certainly had. Tact she could not have, since her sympathies were so limited and her ha

er from coquetry. At the same time she had a womanish vanity about her admirers, and entire freedom in speaking of them. In vain I endeavored to insinuate the unpleasan

pleasure in receiving a bouquet of rare

an attachment to you, or rather sent heliotr

an!" said s

hould be, sadly mortified at hi

be mortified," said she,

et says, Lulu, and it

to blame that

ear that comes

ead at this, but it was only a passing

fair," as if she had been p

l sense, though she called herself a member of the C

she would have said he had not had luncheon. A strange responsibility, if he felt it, had this William, a man nearly for

her early, or that I now had a right to say to her what I would. Ho

rs they were mostly in Cuba, while my husband was ca

to hear the bell ring, or the door open, till I felt a little rustle, and a soft, sudden kiss on my lips. I was no way surprised, for Lulu's was the foremost face in the coal

ave be

had something

d very near death, with the fever of the country. It had left tra

n into that fine body. The brown eyes were deeper, and the voice had thrills of feeling and sentiment. For all that, she had the same incompleteness that she had when I last saw her, and an inharmoniousness th