There was a fascinating spell in her piquant descriptions, and a
genial glow of sympathy animated to characteristic movement the
figures, who in varying pantomime replaced one another on the theatre
of her fancy. Frost-bound New England melted into a dreamland of
romance beneath the spice-breeze of her Eastern narrative. Sticklers
for propriety might have found fault at the freedom with which she
confided her friends' histories to one who was a comparative stranger
to them; but I could not but note how conscientiousness reined in her
sensibilities and curbed their career, as they reached the due bounds
of privacy. She did but realize one's conception of the transparent
truthfulness that will pervade advanced societies of the future, where
the very atmosphere shall be honorable faith.
Nearer and nearer Margaret was approaching a secret throned in her
heart that day; and the preceding transitions were but a prelude of
her orchestra before the entrance of the festal group. Unconsciously
she made these preparations for paying worthy honors to a high
sentiment. She had lately heard of the betrothal of two of her
best-loved friends; and she wished to communicate the graceful story
in a way that should do justice to the facts and to her own feelings.
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