"I never could see," said Miss Eliza, "that it was any wickeder for a lady to smoke than for a gentleman; but, as I told the child, a girl's lips ought to be sweet." "Her smoking is far less serious than other things," said the younger sister, sitting up very straight and rigid. "I do not wish to believe ill of the girl, so I shall only repeat that I do not think she will make any man happy." "She will," Miss Eliza said, "if he will beat her." "Oh, my _dear_ Eliza!" Miss Mary remonstrated. Then she tried to be charitable: "However, perhaps she is engaged to this Maitland person, in which case, though her taste would be just as bad, her meeting him here would be less shocking." "If she isn't now, she will be very soon," Frederica's defender said. "Well," said Miss Mary, grimly, "let us hope so, for her sake; although, as I say, I do _not_ feel that she--" Miss Eliza looked at her cousin, and winked; he choked with laughter. Then, with the purpose of saving Freddy, he began to dissect Freddy's grandmother--her powder and false hair; her white veil, her dog-collar--"that's to keep her double chin up," he said. "Yes! She is _very_ lively for her age!" He wished he could say that old Mrs. Holmes was in the habit of meeting gentlemen in empty apartments--anything to draw attention from his poor Fred! When he left his cousins, promising to come again as soon as he got back from his shooting trip, and declaring that he hadn't had such milk toast in years, he knew that he had not rehabilitated Frederica. "But Cousin Mary feels that she has done her duty in warning me. Cousin Eliza would gamble on it, and give her to me to-morrow," he thought; "game old soul! But even if Howard wasn't ahead of the game, the odds would be against me--forty-six to twenty-five--and, besides, what could I offer her? Ashes! Kate trampled out the fire." CHAPTER IX