The "darling little loves" were pronounced _au fait_. "What ornaments?" said Josephine, who was in her element. Anna made a gesture of despair. "There's the trouble! I have nothing but those rubies, and they will not do at all. I dislike to go without any; but it cannot be helped." "Pearls would correspond well with your dress," observed Ida. "Ah, yes! my dear! and if I had a pearl fishery, I would draw upon my divers forthwith;--unfortunately I have not." "Are you certain?" returned Ida, smiling. "Imagine me a diver. I have a neat set, which is at your service, if you will honor me by wearing it." "Oh! you dearest of girls!" exclaimed Anna. "But you want them yourself--I beg your pardon--I forgot you were in mourning;--but your black is not too deep for ornaments." "But her odor of sanctity is too strong," said Josephine. "She has renounced the pomps and vanities you and I love, Anna, and 'put on the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit.' How do you reconcile it with your conscience, to let your pearls attend a ball, Ida? How much scouring and praying will cleanse them again for your use?" "Oh! I will get you or Anna to air them for me, once in a while, and trust to time to purify them," said Ida, willing to pass it off as a joke. "Do you really think it sinful to go to balls?" asked Anna, wonderingly. "I could not do it innocently," replied Ida. "Why not? you used to like them as well as the rest of us." "For pity's sake! no sermonising!" rudely interrupted Josephine. "I can show you the root of her piety in two words. Don't you remember a certain gentleman, whose handsome face and saintly smile set off his religion so well?" "Oh!" laughed Anna; "but I thought he liked her very well as she was." "Nothing like making assurance doubly sure!" answered the other. "Pity he did not return to town this winter. Love's labor is lost." "Why, Ida! what a flirt you are!" cried Anna. "When everybody says you are engaged to Mr. Dana!" "Everybody is wrong, then," said Ida, calmly. "Everybody is _right_!" contradicted Josephine. "She reads in her Bible, that she 'must love all men;' and her being in mourning for one beau, and dying with love for another, are no impediments to her engagement with a third. This is Platonism with a vengeance." "Fie! Josephine!" said Anna, perceiving by Ida's face, that the pleasantry, as she still thought it, was going too far. "You know, as well as I do, that Mr. Holmes was only a friend. Mrs. Dana is in black for him too--it is as reasonable to say that she was in love with him." "She may have been, for anything I know to the contrary;" retorted Josephine, growing more and more insolent. "I don't pretend to understand the morals of 'the clique.'" "I am going up stairs, Anna," said Ida, "and will send you the pearls. If they please you, you are welcome to them, whenever you wish them."