and bad as he was looked crestfallen and uneasy.  Some who appeared to be more careful of the manners of society than its morals, said that I was very rude.  Others said that I was too prudish, and would be an old maid, that I was looking for perfection in young men, and would not find it.  That young men sow their wild oats, and that I was more nice than wise, and that I would frighten the gentlemen away from me.  I told them if the young men were so easily frightened, that I did not wish to clasp hands for life with any such timid set, and that I was determined that I would have a moral husband or none; that I was not obliged to be married, but that I was obliged to be true to my conscience.  That when I married I expected to lay the foundation of a new home, and that I would never trust my future happiness in the hands of a libertine, or lay its foundations over the reeling brain of a drunkard, and I determined that I would never marry a man for whose vices I must blush, and whose crimes I must condone; that while I might bend to grief I would not bow to shame; that if I brought him character and virtue, he should give me true manhood and honor in return.”

“And I think mother that you got it when you married father.”

“I am satisfied that I did, and the respect and appreciation my daughter has for her father is only part of my life’s reward, but it was my dear mother who taught me to distinguish between the true and the false, and although she was [not?] what you call educated, she taught me that no magnificence of fortune would atone for meanness of spirit, that without character the most wealthy and talented man is a bankrupt in soul.  And she taught me how to be worthy of a true man’s love.”

“And I think you have succeeded splendidly.”

“Thank you, my darling.  But mother has become used to compliments.”

Chapter XVI

“I do not think she gets any more than she deserves,” said Mr. Lasette, entering the room.  “She is one of whom it may be said, ’Her children arise up and call her blessed, her husband also, and he praiseth her; many daughters have done virtuously but thou excellest them all.’”

“I do not think you will say that I am excelling if I do not haste about your supper; you were not home to dinner and must be hungry by this time, and it has been said that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.”

“Oh, isn’t that a libel on my sex!”

“Papa,” said Laura Lasette, after her mother had left the room, “did you know Frank Miller?  Mother was telling me about him but she did not finish; what became of him?”

“Now, you ask me two questions in one breath; let me answer one at a time.”

“Well, papa, I am all attention.”