"Yes? What used she to say about him? She liked him, didn't she?" said Archie, eagerly.
"Why, no; I should say not. She used to say he was a regular fool—always laughing. She said she never knew such a greeny in all her life."
Mr. Rivers suddenly wilted down, and hadn't a word to say. Just at that moment a party of Gipsy's friends came along, and it was:
"Oh, Gipsy! Gipsy! Oh, Miss Gower! we've been searching all over for you. Everybody's dying of the blues, because you are absent. Do come with us!"
Archie leaped from his seat as though he had received a bayonet thrust. Gipsy rose, saying, in a low, sarcastic voice, as she passed him:
"Remember me to Gipsy when you see her. Tell her what I said about Archie," and she was gone.
During the remainder of the evening the "distinguished" Mr. Rivers looked about as crestfallen as a young lawyer possessed of a large stock of native impudence could well do. There he stood and watched Gipsy, who had never been so magnetic, so bewitching, so entrancing in her life before. Never by chance did she look at him; but there was scarcely another masculine head in the room she had not turned.
"Confound the little witch!" muttered Master Archie, "no wonder she called me a fool! But who the deuce would ever think of finding little Gipsy Gower in one of the belles of Washington? Had it been Celeste, now, I should not have felt surprised. And who would ever think that yonder dazzling, brilliant, magnetic girl was the little shy maiden who, ten minutes ago, sat beside me with her demure 'yes, sir!' Well, she seems to be enjoying herself anyway. So, Miss Gipsy, I'll follow your example and do the same."
For the remainder of the evening Archie threw himself into the gay throng with the evident determination of enjoying himself or dying in the attempt. And more than one fair cheek flushed, and more than one pair of bright eyes grew brighter, as their owner listened with downcast lashes and smiling lips to the gallant words of the handsome young lawyer. He was, if not the handsomest, at least one of the handsomest, men in the room; and
"Oh! he had that merry glance,
That seldom lady's heart resists."