“Hush-sh,” said ’Lena—­“you shan’t talk so, for she is sick a great deal, and she does not feign it, either.”

“Perhaps not,” returned John Jr., “but she can at least keep her miserable feelings to herself.  Nobody wants to know how many times she’s been blistered and bled!”

Still John Jr. acknowledged that there were somethings in Mabel which he liked, for no one could live long with her and not admire her gentleness and uncommon sweetness of disposition, which manifested itself in numerous little acts of kindness to those around her.  Never before in her life had she been so constantly associated with a young gentleman, and as she was quite susceptible, it is hardly more than natural that erelong thoughts of John Jr. mingled in both her sleeping and waking dreams.  She could not understand him, but the more his changeful moods puzzled her, the more she felt interested in him, and her eyes would alternately sparkle at a kind word from him, or fill with tears at the abruptness of his speeches; while he seemed to take special delight in seeing how easily he could move her from one extreme to the other.

Silently Mrs. Livingstone looked on, carefully noting each change, and warily calculating its result.  Not once since Mabel became an inmate of her family had she mentioned her to her son, for she deemed it best to wait, and let matters take their course.  But at last, anxious to know his real opinion, she determined to sound him.  Accordingly, one day when they were alone, she spoke of Mabel, asking him if he did not think she improved upon acquaintance, at the same time enumerating her many excellent qualities, and saying that whoever married her would get a prize, to say nothing of a fortune.

Quickly comprehending the drift of her remarks, John Jr. replied, “I dare say, and whoever wishes for both prize and fortune, is welcome to them for all me.”

“I thought you liked Mabel,” said his mother; and John answered, “So I do like her, but for pity’s sake, is a man obliged to marry every girl he likes?  Mabel does very well to tease and amuse one, but when you come to the marrying part, why, that’s another thing.”

“And what objection have you to her,” continued his mother, growing very fidgety and red.

“Several,” returned John, “She has altogether too many aches and pains to suit me; then she has no spirit whatever; and last, but not least, I like somebody else.  So, mother mine, you may as well give up all hopes of that hundred thousand down in Alabama, for I shall never marry Mabel Ross, never.”

Mrs. Livingstone was now not only red and fidgety but very angry, and, in an elevated tone of voice, she said, “I s’pose it’s Nellie Douglass you mean, but if you knew all of her that I do, I reckon——­”

Here she paused, insinuating that she could tell something dreadful, if she would!  But John Jr. took no notice of her hints, and when he got a chance, he replied, “You are quite a Yankee at guessing, for if Nellie will have me, I surely will have her.”