“I did not think there was such a ridiculously conscientious woman on the earth.  Believe me, you are formed after a very unusual pattern.  But you must at least hear my story; otherwise you cannot help me.”

“I have been waiting with what patience I could command for the last hour to hear it.  I must be home before nightfall, and it is now approaching sunset.”

She turned partly away, thereby giving me the better opportunity to admire the perfect contour of face and neck, with the color coming and going fitfully as she talked.

“Like you,” she said, “I was an orphan, and like you I was very rich.”

I started with surprise.  She looked at me in her keen, intuitive way.

“What! did you not know you were an heiress?”

“I have never had the curiosity to ask.  Mr. Winthrop will explain everything at the proper time.”

“An old-fashioned woman, truly, patterned after the immortal Sarah, who called Abraham her lord,” she said, with a soft little laugh that angered me exceedingly.

“The beginning of our destiny has been something alike—­both orphans, and both rich beyond our utmost need.  I too was educated on the other side of the sea, first in a quiet little English town, Weston-Super-Mer, where my grandmother lived, and afterward in Paris.  If I had never gone to the latter place, I might not be sitting here compelling a scrupulous listener to hear my story.”

She was silent awhile, a half-suppressed sigh escaping her, over these bygone memories.  She continued her story: 

“I was quick to learn, soon acquiring the accomplishments necessary for a woman of the world to know; and, finding my guardian easy to manage, I escaped from the restraints of the school-room much earlier than is usual, and plunged into the gayeties, first of Parisian, and afterward of New York society.  I became a belle from my first ball, and was soon almost wearied with conquests that caused me no effort.  One evening I met Mr. Winthrop.  My chaperone, the following day, gave me a detailed history of himself and fortune, and recommended me to secure him for a husband.  I resolved to bring him to my feet, reserving the privilege of accepting or not, as I chose.  I subsequently found, in order to meet him, it was necessary for me to forsake, occasionally, the ball-room, and to frequent, in its stead, the concert and lecture hall.  By degrees I gained his notice, and the very difficulty of winning him made the task all the more congenial.  Like you, I developed a fondness for literature, and, in order the more quickly to gain the desired knowledge, I consulted dictionaries, encyclopaedias, and hired private tutors to cram me with poetry, history, and information generally of art and its manufacturers.  At first I could see he was more amused than fascinated at my shallow acquirements.  But gradually my personal charms, rather than mental, conquered his proud reserve, and the glance of his eye came to express