III

A GLANCE AT MISS FLORA HENDERSON HERSELF

But what sort of a woman was Miss Flora Henderson, it may be asked, that she should demand so much in the man with whom she should share the burdens of life?  Surely one should be wellnigh perfect one’s self to require so much of another—­and I really think Miss Flora Henderson was so.

In the first place, she was tall and stately—­Junoesque some people called her.  She had an eye fit for all things.  It was soft or hard, as one wished it.  It was melting or fixed, according to the mood one would have her betray.  She was never flippant, and while the small things of life interested her to an extent, much more absorbed was she in the great things which pertain to existence.  Dance she could, and well, but she danced not to the exclusion of all other things.  With dancing people she was a dancer full of the poetry of motion, and enjoying it openly and innocently.  With a man of learning, however, she was equally at home as with the callow youth.  With nature in her every mood was she in sympathy.  She was fond of poetry and of music; indeed, to sum up her character in as few words as possible, she was everything that so critical a dreamer of the ideal as Mr. Augustus Richards could have wished for, nor was there one weak spot in the armor of her character at which he could cavil.

In short, Miss Flora Henderson, of Boston, was the ideal of whom Mr. Augustus Richards, of New York, dreamed.

IV

A BRIEF GLIMPSE OF MR. AUGUSTUS RICHARDS

And as Miss Flora Henderson represented in every way the ideal of Mr. Augustus Richards, so did he represent hers.  He had the physical beauty of Miles Dawson, and was quite the equal of the latter in the matter of wealth.  So many horses he had not, but he owned a sufficient number of them.  He was not horsemad, nor did he yawn over Shelley or despise aesthetic pleasures.  In truth, in the pursuit of aesthetic delights he was as eager as Henry Webster.  He was in all things the sort of man to whom our heroine of Boston would have been willing to intrust her hand and her heart.

V

CONCLUSION

But they never met.

And they lived happily ever after.

MRS. UPTON’S DEVICE

A TALE OF MATCH-MAKING

I

THE RESOLVE

  “For when two
  Join in the same adventure, one perceives
  Before the other how they ought to act.”

  —­BRYANT.