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A Woman-Hater. Part II. till they are ripe for collision. There be writers would give the reader all the preliminary puffs of articu- lated wind, and everybody would say, " How clever ! That is just the way girls really talk." But I leave the glory of photographing nullities to the geniuses of the age, and run to the first words which could, without impiety, be called dialogue.

" Don't you think his conduct a little mysterious?" said Zoe, mal apropos of anything that had been said hitherto.

" "Well, yes ; rather," said Fanny, with marked carelessness.

"First, a sick friend; then a bleeding at the nose ; and now he won't drive to the lake with us : arrears of correspondence ? Pooh ! "

Now Fanny's suspicions were deeper than Zoe's; she had ob- served Severne keenly : but it was not her cue to speak ; she yawned, and said, " What does it matter 1 "

"Don't be unkind. It matters to me"

" Not it. You have another ready/'

" What other 1 There is no one that I Fanny."

" Oh, nonsense ! The man is evi- dently smitten, and you keep en- couraging him."

" No, I don't ; I am barely civil. And don't be ill-natured. What can I dot"

" Why, be content with one at a time."

" It is very rude to talk so. Be- sides, I haven't got one, much less two. I begin to doubt him ; and, Lord Uxmoor ! you know I cannot possibly care for him an acquaint- ance of yesterday."

" But you know all about him ; that he is an excellent parti" said Fanny, with a provoking sneer.

This was not to be borne.

"Oh," 'said Zoe, "I see! you want him for yourself. It is you

that are not content with one. You forget how poor Harrington would miss your attentions. He would begin to appreciate them when he had lost them."

This stung, and Fanny turned white and red by turns. "I de- serve this," said she, " for wasting advice on a coquet."

"That is not true; I'm no coquet : and here I am, asking your advice, and you only snub me. You are a jealous, cross, unreasonable thing."

"Well, I 'm not a hypocrite."

" I never was called so before," said Zoe, nobly and gently.

" Then you were not found out, that is all. You look so simple and ingenuous, and blush if a man says half a word to you ; and all the time you are a greater flirt than I am."

" Oh, Fanny ! " screamed Zoe, with horror.

It seems a repartee may be con- veyed in a scream ; for Fanny now lost her temper altogether. " Your conduct with those two men is abominable," said she. "I won't speak to you any more."

" I beg you will not, in your present temper," said Zoe, with unaffected dignity, and rising like a Greek column.

Fanny flounced out of the room. Zoe sat down and sighed, and her glorious eyes were dimmed. Mystery doubt and now a quarrel. What a day ! At her age, a little cloud seems to darken the whole sky.

Next morning the little party met at breakfast. Lord Uxmoor, anticipating a delightful day, was in high spirits, and he and Fanny kept up the ball. She had resolved, in the silent watches of the night, to contest him with Zoe, and make every possible use of Severne, in the conflict.