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"Is not that as it should be, Arenta? We ought surely to grow better as we grow older"

"That is not to be denied, Cornelia Now I can tell you so about General Hyde"

"If it is anything wrong, or unkind, I will not listen to it, Arenta Have you forgotten that the good Sisters always forbid us to listen to an evil report?"

"Then one must shut one's ears if one lives in New York But, indeed, it is nothing wrong--only soood as a story book Shall I tell you?"

"As you wish"

"As you wish"

"Then I would like to hear it"

"Listen! When Madaer than you are, she had two lovers; one, Captain Dick Hyde, and the other a young ht a duel about her, and nearly cut each other to pieces"

"Arenta!"

"Oh, it is the truth! It is the very truth, I assure you! And while Hyde still lay between life and death, Miss Van Heemskirk married hiht to England; and there they lived in a fine old house until the war Then they came back to New York, and Hyde went into the Continental ars, I suppose, for as we all knew, he was elica tell the story She rehtful story to listen to, as we drank our chocolate And will you please only try to iine it of Mrs General Hyde! A woman so lofty! So calm! So afar off from every impropriety that you always feel it impossible in her presence to coine her as Katherine Van Hee in two braids down her back, running away at ht with General Hyde!"

"He was her husband She co of the quilted petticoat, and the two braids; for who now dresses so extravagantly and so nificently as Madame Hyde? She has an Indian shawl that cost two hundred pounds Aunt Angelica says John Embree told her 'THAT much at the very least'--and as for the General! is there any nity-- and morality? He is in St Paul's Chapel every Sunday, and when you see hiht half-a-dozen duels, for half-a-dozen beauties?"