Yes, sisters, I think you can conscientiously congratulate me. Virtue does sometimes meet with its own reward, especially when it is combined with youthfulness, elegance, and high mental attributes.
XCVI.
C. O. D.
DEAR SISTERS:—The cruelty of one female woman to another is something awful. As a general thing, E. E. Dempster is a good-natured, amiable person, but her conduct on the very day after that heavenly season on the shore was worthy of the Spanish Inquisition. She has lacerated the heart in my bosom, and torn me away from this place like a ruthless highwayman. That is what she has done.
Early in the morning, while I was dreaming sweetly of the sea-shore, that unfeeling female rushed into my room.
"Phœmie," says she, "you can't sleep any longer. We are packing up for the city. Cecilia has been insulted here, and I won't stay another hour in the place."
"What! what is it?" says I. "How could you! He was just giving up metaphor and coming squarely out in the sweetest way."
"You will have no more than time to pack your trunk before the train starts," says she.
"Starts—what for! where?"