"Oh! of course." "And the reason is plain. A gentleman never uses the one after he leaves college, and lays them by with the crabbed books that teach them; while the art of compliment is always useful and agreeable--especially agreeable to young ladies of your exceedingly juvenile age--is't not?" "Very agreeable." "I know it is; and when a woman descends to it, and flatters a man--ah! my dear Fanny, there's no hope for him. I am a melancholy instance." "You!" laughed Fanny, who had regained her good-humor. "Yes; you know Williamsburg has many other things to recommend it besides the college." "What things?" "Pretty girls." "Oh! indeed." "Yes, and I assure you I did not neglect the opportunity of prosecuting my favorite study--the female character. Don't interrupt me--your character is no longer a study to me." "I am very glad, sir." "I made you out long ago--like the rest of your sex, you are, of course, very nearly angelic, but still have your faults." "Thank you, sir." "All true--but about Williamsburg--I was, I say, a melancholy sample of the effect produced by a kind and friendly speech from a lady. Observe, that the said speech was perfectly commonplace, and sprung, I'm sure, from the speaker's general amiability; and yet, what must I do, but go and fall in love with her." "Oh!" from Fanny. "Yes--true as truth itself; and, as a consequence, my friends, for the first, and only time, had a good joke against me. They had a tale about my going to his Excellency, the Governor's palace, to look at the great map there--all for the purpose of finding where the country was in which she lived; for, observe, she was only on a visit to Williamsburg--of studying out this boundary, and that--this river to cross, and that place to stop at,--the time it would take to carry my affections over them--and all the thousand details. Of course, this was not true, my darling Fanny, at least--" "Ralph, you shall stop talking to me like a child!" exclaimed Fanny, who had listened to the details of Mr. Ashley's passion with more and more constraint; "please to remember that I am not a baby, sir." Ralph looked at the lovely face, with its rosy-cheeks and flashing eyes, and burst out laughing. "There, you are as angry as Cleopatra, when the slave brought her bad news--and, by Jove, Fanny, you are twice as lovely. Really! you have improved wonderfully. Your eyes, at this moment, are as brilliant as fire--your lips like carnation--and your face like sunlit gold; recollect, I'm a poet. I'm positively rejoiced at the good luck which made me bring such a lovely expression into your fair countenance." Fanny turned her head away. "Come now, Fanny," said Ralph, seriously, "I do believe you are going to find fault with my nonsense." No reply. Mr. Ralph Ashley heaved a sigh; and was silent. "You treat me like a child," said Fanny, reproachfully; "I am not a child."