a new start by and by. Do: I should so like to read it," cried Rose, delighted with the project; for she was sure Mac could do any thing he liked in that line.
"First live, then write. How can I go to romancing till I know what romance means?" he asked soberly, feeling that so far he had had very little in his life.
"Then you must find out, and nothing will help you more than to love some one very much. Do as I've advised, and be a modern Diogenes going about with spectacles, instead of a lantern, in search, not of an honest man, but a perfect woman. I do hope you will be successful," and Rose made her courtesy as the dance ended.
"I don't expect perfection, but I should like one as good as they ever make them now-a-days. If you are looking for the honest man, I wish you success in return," said Mac, relinquishing her fan with a glance of such sympathetic significance that a quick flush of feeling rose to the girl's face, as she answered very low,—
"If honesty was all I wanted, I certainly have found it in you."
Then she went away with Charlie, who was waiting for his turn, and Mac roamed about, wondering if anywhere in all that crowd his future wife was hidden, saying to himself, as he glanced from face to face, quite unresponsive to the various allurements displayed,—
"What care I how fair she be,
If she be not fair for me?"
