A frail partition but divides Your husband from insanity; He stares as madness onward strides To crush each spark of memory— I gave you all—this you give me! _Vale et Benedicite._ * * * * * COQUET _versus_ COQUETTE. BY MRS. CAROLINE H. BUTLER. _Benedict._ One woman is fair; yet I am well: another is wise; yet I am well: another virtuous; yet I am well: but till all graces be in one woman, one woman shall not come in my grace. _Much Ado About Nothing._ _Princess._ We are wise girls to mock our lovers so. _Rosaline._ They are worse fools to purchase mocking so. That same Biron I’ll torture ere I go. How will I make him fawn, and beg, and seek; And wait the season, and observe the times, And spend his prodigal wits in bootless rhymes; And shape his service wholly to my behests; And make him proud to make me proud that jests! So portent-like would I o’ersway his state That he should be my fool, and I his fate. _Love’s Labor Lost._ CHAPTER I. Nature had been very profuse in bestowing her favors upon Mr. Frank Gadsby. In the first place she had given him a very elegant person, tall and of manly proportions; secondly, a pair of large, dark-hazel eyes, which could beam with tenderness or become fixed in the “fine frenzy” of despair, as best suited the pleasure of their owner. Above them she had placed a broad, white forehead, and adorned it with waving hair, of a dark, glossy brown. Next, a splendid set of teeth attested her skill and favor; and, to complete the _tout ensemble_, whiskers and moustache were unsurpassable. “Well,” said Fortune, rather ruffled, “if Nature has been so prodigal, he shall have none of my assistance—not he! Let him make his way through the world by his good looks, if he can. I will seek out some ordinary looking fellow, whom nature has neglected, and with my golden smiles atone for the want of those attractions which soonest win the favor of the fair.” And thus, under the ban of Fortune, Frank Gadsby left college.