An Original Belle

uiet sleep. When at last he came she told him everything. As she described the first part of the inte

atient. I'm only following the tactics in vogue,-taking the longest way around to the point to be attacked. Lane said that if you carried out your present principle of action you would have a power possessed by few. I think he is right. I'm not flattering you. Little power of any kind can co-exist with vanity. The secret of your fascination is chiefly in your individuality. There are other girls more beautiful and accomplished who have not a tithe of it. Now and then a woman is peculiarly gifted with the power to influence men,-strong men, too. You had this potency in no slight degree when neither your heart nor your brain was very active. You will find that it will increase with time, and if you are wise it will be greater when you are sixty than at present. If you avoid the Scylla of vanity on the one hand, and the Charybdis of selfishness on the other, and if the sympathies of your heart keep pace with a cultivated mind, you will steadily grow in social influence. I believe it for this reason: A weak girl would have been sentimental with Lane, would have yielded temporarily, either to his entre

hat you suggest makes life appear

m a better artist and a better fellow in every way. Drop all muffs and sticks; don't waste yourself on them. Have considerable charity for some of the wild fellows, none for their folly, and from the start tolerate no tendencies toward sentimentality. You will find that the men who admire girls bent on making eyes rather than making men will soon disappear. Sensible fellows won't misunderstand you, even though prompted to more than friendship; and you will have a circle of friends of which any woman might be proud. Of course you will find at times that unspoken negatives will not satisfy; but if a woman has tact, good sense, and sincerity, her position is impregnabl

and change by time so much as by what happens,-by what we think

nge the direction of the current. You will be much the same outwardly, as I said before. The stream will flow through the same

ndisturbed by a single perplexing thought during the past few days. There was the same elegant, yet rather youthful costume for a lady of her years; the same smiling face, no

lso had a wakening curiosity to know just what her mother was to her father and he to her. The hope was forming that she could make them more to each other. She had too much

ned in her absence. She waited in vain for any searching and intelligent questions concerning the absent husband. Beyond that he was well, and that everything about the house was just as she had left it, Mr

ing that you were away," said the lady, "and he spent most of the eve

tain you? What di

nows everybody and everything. He has at his finger-ends the history of all who were belles in my time, and" (complac

us half appreciates papa. He works right on so quietly

about the people we used to know, Mr. Lanniere began a tirade against the times and the war, which he says have cost him a hundred thousand dollars

a great deal better?" the y

illion, more or less, is a very comfortable fact. Mr. Lanniere has a fine house in town, but he's a great traveller

niere, indeed! What should I be but a part of his possessions,-another expensive luxury in his luxurious life? I want a man like papa,-earnest, large-brained, and large-hearted,-who, instead of inveighing against the

ian, how

n order to feel deeply. I read of an awful battle while coming up in the cars. We have been promised, all the

s a big political squabble, and you know I detest politics. It is just as Mr. Lanniere says,-if our people had only let slavery alone all would have gone on veil. The leaders on both sides will find out

esn't th

self with cloudy speculations and ideals and vast questions about the welfare of the world, or the 'trend of the centuries,' as he sai

ed. I know that papa feels deeply about the war, and means to take the most effective part in it that he can, and that he

ake any risks," said

e same right that

I show him that a thing is quixotic he laughs, shrugs his shoulders, and good-naturedly goes on in the even tenor of his way. It was the luckiest thing in the world for him when he married me, for I soon learned his weak points, and have ever guarded him against them. As a result he has had a quiet, prosperous career.

understands mamma, but has she any gauge by which to measure hi

lthough I said I did not know whether you would be at home to-night or not. Mr. Lanniere will be very likely to

I might kill him, and I should be tempted to if I married him. You know that I do not care for him, and he knows it, too. Inde

is still in his prime, and is a very agreeable and accomplished man of the world.

happiness, and he w

ny young people, you have romantic ideas, and do not appreciate the fact that happiness results chiefly from the conditions of our lot, and that we soon l

face, is the type of what I was. She has been lighting the drawing-room for me to do what she proposes to do later in the evening. She looks just t

gs or not, I can at least do some freezing out. That gossipy, selfish old Mr. Lanniere must take his million to some other market. I have no room in my life for him. Neither do I dote on the future acquaintance of Mr. Strahan. I shall put him on probation. If men don't want my society and regard on the new conditions, they can stay a