' Even here,
where all seems free and easy, there's no end of
gossips and spies who tattle and watch till you feel
as if you lived in a lantern. 'Every one for himself,
and the Devil take the hindmost'; that's the
principle they go on, and you have to keep your
wits about you in the most exhausting manner, or
you are done for before you know it. I've seen a
good deal of this sort of thing, and hope you'll get
on better than some do, when it's known that you
are the rich Mrs. Carroll's niece; though you don't
need that fact to enhance your charms,--upon my
life, you don't."
Debby laughed behind her parasol at this burst
of candor; but her independent nature prompted
her to make a fair beginning, in spite of Aunt
Pen's polite fictions and well-meant plans.
" Thank you for your warning, but I don't
apprehend much annoyance of that kind," she said,
demurely. "Do you know, I think, if young
ladies were truthfully labelled when they went into
society, it would be a charming fashion, and save a
world of trouble? Something in this style:--
'Arabella Marabout, aged nineteen, fortune
$100,000, temper warranted'; 'Laura Eau-de-Cologne,
aged twenty-eight, fortune $30,000,
temper slightly damaged'; Deborah Wilder,
aged eighteen, fortune, one pair of hands, one head,
indifferently well filled, one heart, (not in the
market,) temper decided, and no expectations.
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