Page:The Diothas, or, A far look ahead (IA diothasorfarlook01macn).pdf/269

 "Well, then, what need to bind it up, except when custom requires, if it does require, that we appear together in public? Otherwise let us go on just as heretofore."

"Is this a promise?" inquired Reva.

"A promise," said I.

"You will not, then, ask me to go out unless I really wish to go?"

"But how can I tell," I exclaimed, "when such a request will not prove unwelcome?"

"Let me see—perhaps I may—But this is better. When I hand you a slip of eglantine in this way," said she, suiting the action to the words, "or when you find such a slip in the table-bouquet, opposite your place at table, you will know that I would like you to take me somewhere."

"You will find me an obedient slave," said I, with an air of mock resignation. "I only hope"—

"You must not talk in that way," exclaimed Reva, checking me with finger uplifted in warning, "if we are to be good friends!"

As already has been remarked, truthfulness and sincerity were marked characteristics in the people of this period. Hence an utter absence of the hollow phrases that form so large a part of our social currency,—a currency so well worn as, in many cases, to require the aid of an expert to determine the original image and superscription. If a person had any thing to say, it was said with all courtesy, but at the same time with strict adherence to the truth as known to the speaker. If, for any reason, it would be inconvenient or undesirable to