"Well, you must do as you please. Still I cannot approve of your
going, for I see that there is danger. But you are fully of age, and
I will not seek to control you."

So strong was Amanda's desire to attend a large but select party,
that she went, in company with a young man who called for her,
notwithstanding the atmosphere was so humid and dense with fog, that
breathing became oppressive.

The rooms were crowded, and the air in them so warm as to cause the
perspiration to start from the fair brows of the merry dancers,
among whom none was more fair or more lively than Amanda Beaufort.
At eleven, after having passed an evening of much pleasure, she
started for home with her companion. She was so well wrapped up,
that she did not feel the cold, and her feet were protected from the
damp pavement by the impervious India rubber.

"I'm safe home, ma, after all!" she exclaimed with her merry ringing
laugh, as she bounded into the chamber where her ever-watchful and
interested mother sat awaiting her daughter's return.

"I am glad to see you back, Amanda," said Mrs. Beaufort kindly, "and
hope that no ill consequences will follow what I must still call a
very imprudent act."

"Oh I'm just as well as ever, and have not taken the least cold. How
could I, wrapped up so warm?"

Still, on the next morning, unaccountable as it was to Amanda, she
was quite hoarse, and was much troubled by a cough occasioned by a