I say, Arthur, there was a capital fellow spoiled when
you took to the ministry, with your splendid talents, and rare
gift for making people like and believe in you.
"Now, I suppose you will reply that for this denial of self you
look for your reward in heaven, and I suppose you are right; but
as I have no reason to think I have any stock in that region, I
go in for a good time here, and this summer I take it at
Saratoga, where I expect to meet one of your lambs. I hear you
have in your flock forty in all, their ages varying from fifteen
to fifty. But this particular lamb, Miss Anna Ruthven, is, I
fancy, the fairest of them all, and as I used to make you my
father confessor in the days when I was rusticated out in
Winsted, and fell so desperately in love with the six Miss
Larkins, each old enough to be my mother, so now I confide to you
the programme as marked out by Mrs. Julia Meredith, the general
who brings the lovely Anna into the field.
"We, that is, Mrs. Meredith and myself, are on the best of
terms. I lunch with her, dine with her, lounge in her parlors,
drive her to the park, take her to the operas, concerts and
plays, and compliment her good looks, which are wonderfully well
preserved for a woman of forty-five.
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