make himself nice to young ladies without deceiving any of them; may he not?'
'You must not take me “au pied de la lettre,” Miss Staveley, or I shall be lost. Of course he may. But when young gentlemen are so very nice, young ladies are so apt to'
'To what?'
'Not to fall in love with them exactly, but to be ready to be fallen in love with; and then if a man does do it he is a deceiver. I declare it seems to me that we don’t allow them a chance of going right.'
'I think that Augustus manages to steer through such difficulties very cleverly.'
'He sails about in the open sea, touching at all the most lovely capes and promontories, and is never driven on shore by stress of weather! What a happy sailor he must be!'
'I think he is happy, and that he makes others so.'
'He ought to be made an admiral at once. But we shall hear some day of his coming to a terrible shipwreck.'
'Oh, I hope not!'
'He will return home in desperate plight, with only two planks left together, with all his glory and beauty broken and crumpled to pieces against some rock that he has despised in his pride.'
'Why do you prophesy such terrible things for him?'
'I mean that he will get married.'
'Get married! of course he will. That's just what we all want. You don't call that a shipwreck; do you?'
'It's the sort of shipwreck that these very gallant barks have to encounter.'
'You don't mean that he'll marry a disagreeable wife!'
'Oh, no; not in the least. I only mean to say that like other sons of Adam, he will have to strike his colours. I dare say, if the truth were known, he has done so already.'
'I am sure he has not.'
'I don't at all ask to know his secrets, and I should look upon you as a very bad sister if you told them.'
'But I am sure he has not got any,—of that kind.'
'Would he tell you if he had?'
'Oh, I hope so; any serious secret. I am sure he ought, for I am always thinking about him.'
'And would you tell him your secrets?'
'I have none.'
'But when you have, will you do so?'
'Will I? Well, yes; I think so. But a girl has no such secret,' she continued to say, after pausing for a moment. 'None, generally, at least, which she tells, even to herself, till the time comes in which she tells it to all whom she really loves.' And then there was another pause for a moment.
