“I guess I’ll come and borrow some of the wisdom _you_ have to spare, Miss,” retorted Charlotte, very angrily, as she rose and whisked out of the room, slamming the door violently after her. Mrs. Varley and the three sisters, Annette, Almeda, and Cynthia, all pounced upon Adelaide, who was really more shrewd and sensible than they all, till she diverted them from the attack by a narration of what was always interesting, the gossip she had gathered from one and another, together with her own active surmises during the evening. “If you had seen how Emilie Jones acted, mamma—I could not help thinking Mr. Style and Mrs. Tower were both delighted with her impudence,” said Adelaide. “For my part, I think she is one of the sauciest and most sarcastic imps I ever saw. If Capt. Jones was not so rich and his family so influential, I would cut her acquaintance.” “And a mighty deal would she care for that,” replied Annette, “so long as Mrs. Tower makes such friends of her and her mother. But did she tell you that her father and George are coming home directly? Mrs. Jones was here to-night, and she said so.” “No—she did not say a word about it. She makes no disclosures to me,” returned Adelaide. “There will be another mark for our beautiful Charlotte—the young lieutenant—if she does not succeed in her ‘ecclesiastical measures,’” she added, biting her lips in expectation of a torrent of displeasure from her mother and sisters. It came, of course, and in a fit of resentment and passion, she too flirted off to bed. CHAPTER III. The Varley family were very wealthy _in purse_, and it was the only anchor with which they were able to fasten themselves on society. They were ignorant, vulgar, and haughty, proud, unprincipled, and deceitful. A more designing, intriguing, manœuvring woman than Mrs. Varley, can seldom be met with, but her plans were all so superficially laid, and so very shallow and short-sighted, they had so far unfortunately failed, at least all the matrimonial alliances she had projected for her five marriageable daughters—inasmuch as they all remained a heavy article in a sated market. Charlotte was the youngest, and in person, so far as the delicate tinting of the face and a faultless chiseling of form were concerned, she possessed unusual loveliness. But the deformity of her ill disciplined and misdirected mind, and the prominent weakness of her character, were so apparent, that in the estimate of really sensible and intelligent people, the one favorable item passed for almost nothing.