not sure that I consider it entirely proper reading for the
young. Aren't you tired walking, Lila?"

"Oh, no, mother."

"Well, we mustn't take the Scriptures literally, you know, my
child; if we did, I fear a great deal of trouble would come of
it--and surely it is a pity to magnify the passion of love when
so very many estimable persons get along quite comfortably
without it. You remember my remarking how happy Miss Belinda
Morrison always appeared to be, and so far as I know she never
had a suitor in her life, though she lived to be upward of
eighty."

"Oh, mother! and yet you were so madly in love with father--you
remember the fancy ball."

"The fancy ball occupied only one night, my dear, and I've had
almost seventy years. I married for love, as you certainly
know--at my age, I suppose I might as well admit it--but the
marriage happened to be also entirely suitable, and I hope that I
should never have been guilty of anything so indelicate as to
fall in love with a gentleman who wasn't a desirable match."

Lila flushed and bit her lip.

"I don't care about stations in life, nor blood, nor anything
like that," she protested.

The old lady sighed. "We won't have any more of Solomon, Tucker,