However, these thinkings and projects of their were private, and did not show on the surface, and therefore threw no shadow upon the celebration.  What showed upon the surface was a serene and lofty contentment and a dignity of carriage and gravity of deportment which compelled the admiration and likewise the wonder of the company.  All noticed it and all commented upon it, but none was able to divine the secret of it.  It was a marvel and a mystery.  Three several persons remarked, without suspecting what clever shots they were making: 

“It’s as if they’d come into property.”

That was just it, indeed.

Most mothers would have taken hold of the matrimonial matter in the old regulation way; they would have given the girls a talking to, of a solemn sort and untactful—­a lecture calculated to defeat its own purpose, by producing tears and secret rebellion; and the said mothers would have further damaged the business by requesting the young mechanics to discontinue their attentions.  But this mother was different.  She was practical.  She said nothing to any of the young people concerned, nor to any one else except Sally.  He listened to her and understood; understood and admired.  He said: 

“I get the idea.  Instead of finding fault with the samples on view, thus hurting feelings and obstructing trade without occasion, you merely offer a higher class of goods for the money, and leave nature to take her course.  It’s wisdom, Aleck, solid wisdom, and sound as a nut.  Who’s your fish?  Have you nominated him yet?”

No, she hadn’t.  They must look the market over—­which they did.  To start with, they considered and discussed Brandish, rising young lawyer, and Fulton, rising young dentist.  Sally must invite them to dinner.  But not right away; there was no hurry, Aleck said.  Keep an eye on the pair, and wait; nothing would be lost by going slowly in so important a matter.

It turned out that this was wisdom, too; for inside of three weeks Aleck made a wonderful strike which swelled her imaginary hundred thousand to four hundred thousand of the same quality.  She and Sally were in the clouds that evening.  For the first time they introduced champagne at dinner.  Not real champagne, but plenty real enough for the amount of imagination expended on it.  It was Sally that did it, and Aleck weakly submitted.  At bottom both were troubled and ashamed, for he was a high-up Son of Temperance, and at funerals wore an apron which no dog could look upon and retain his reason and his opinion; and she was a W. C. T. U., with all that that implies of boiler-iron virtue and unendurable holiness.  But there is was; the pride of riches was beginning its disintegrating work.  They had lived to prove, once more, a sad truth which had been proven many times before in the world:  that whereas principle is a great and noble protection against showy and degrading vanities and vices, poverty