If  she  could  only  make  it  their  own  act !  Now,  a  man
in  such  a  case  inclines  to  give  the  obnoxious  parties  a
chance  of  showing  themselves  generous  and  delicate ;  he
would  reveal  the  whole  situation  to  them,  and  indicate
the  generous  and  manly  course ;  but  your  thorough
woman  cannot  do  this :  it  is  physically  as  well  as  morally
impossible  to  her.  Misogynists  say  it  is  too  wise,  and
not  cunning  enough.  So  what  does  Miss  Lucy  do  but
turn  round  and  make  love  to  Captain  Kenealy !  And
the  cold  virgin  being  at  last  by  irrevocable  fate  driven
to  love-making,  —  I  will  say  this  for  her, —  she  did  not
do  it  by  halves.  She  felt  quite  safe  here.  The  good-
natured,  hollow  captain  was  fortified  against  passion  by
self-admiration.  She  said  to  herself,  "Now,  here  is  a
peg  with  a  military  suit  hanging  to  it ;  if  I  can  only  fix
my  eyes  on  this  piece  of  wood  and  regimentals,  and
make  warm  love  to  it,  the  love  that  poets  have  dreamed
and  romances  described,  I  may  surely  hope  to  disgust
my  two  admirers,  and  then  they  will  abandon  me  and
despise  me.  Ah !  I  could  love  them  if  they  would  only
do  that."

Well,  for  a  young  lady  that  had  never,  to  her  knowl-
edge, felt  the  tender  passion,  the  imitation  thereof  which
she  now  favored  that  little  society  with,  was  a  wonder-
ful piece  of  representation.  Was  Kenealy  absent,  be-
hold Lucy  uneasy  and  restless ;  was  he  present,  but  at  a
distance,  her  eye  demurely  devoured  him.  W^'S  lie  near
her,  she  wooed  him  with  such  a  godlike  mixture  of  fire,
of  tenderness,  of  flattery,  of  tact;  she  did  so  serpen-
tinely  approach  and  coil  round  the  soldier  and  his  mental
cavity,  that  all  the  males  in  creation  should  have  been
permitted  to  defile  past  (like  the  beasts  going  into  the
ark),  and  view  this  sweet  picture  a  moment,  and  infer
how  woman  would  be  wooed,  —  and  then  go  and  do  it.
