Page:A strange, sad comedy (IA strangesadcomedy00seawiala).pdf/292

280 "And he must have assumed a good deal," suddenly cried Letty, bursting out laughing.

"He only assumed that I would act as any other sensible girl would," replied Ethel, calmly. "Sir Archy is a baronet of good family, suitable age, and excellent estate. What more could a girl—and a girl in my position—want?"

"Nothing in the world, I fancy," answered Letty, laughing still more; and when the two girls had their last interview they misunderstood and disesteemed each other more than at their first.

Driving home through the odorous dusk, in the chaise by the Colonel's side, Letty pondered over the remarkable ways of some people. The idea of a man dictating his plans to a woman before he married her—or after, for that matter. Farebrother had asked her what she would like, and their plans were made solely and entirely by Letty. "But I think," she reflected, as she laid her pretty head back in the chaise, "that I would do whatever he asked me to do—because, after all, he is twice the man that my cousin Archy is, and deserves to be loved twice as much—" and "he" meant Farebrother, who was, at that