"So he wrote me."
"You endeavored to dissuade him from complying with my father's wishes, did you not?"
"Yes; most earnestly," answered Beulah gravely.
"Beulah Benton, I like you! You are honest indeed. At last I find one who is." With a sudden impulse she laid her white, jeweled hand on Beulah's.
"Is honesty, or, rather, candor, so very rare, Cornelia?"
"Come out from your 'loop-hole of retreat,' into the world, and you can easily answer your own question."
"You seem to have looked on human nature through misanthropic lenses."
"Yes; I bought a pair of spectacles, for which I paid a most exorbitant price! but they were labeled 'experience'!" She smiled frigidly.
"You do not seem to have enjoyed your tour particularly."
"Yes, I did; but one is glad to rest sometimes. I may yet prove a second Bayard Taylor, notwithstanding. I should like you for a companion. You would not sicken me with stereotyped nonsense."