A Life's Lesson
Minnie Althorpe was a beautiful girl about nineteen years of age, a light-hearted, merry girl, full of deep feeling, and yet somewhat flighty and capricious in her character.
Her home was that of her elder sister, Mrs. Howard, a matronly dame of the age of thirty, who did all in her power to mitigate the flighty character of the younger born. But Minnie was wilful, and unfortunately, all the world over, wilful girls will have their way.
“Now, Minnie,” said Mrs. Howard to her sister one morning, “I hope and trust you will be careful what you are doing. Donald Garnett is coming down with Howard, and you must act with a little more consistency.”
“In what way?” asked her sister, fanning herself in such a way as to hide her face.
“You must give up that horrid flirtation with that man. Lieutenant Conder,” she continued; “he is not worthy to wipe the shoe of a Donald Garnett.”
“He is a handsome, well-bred gentleman, can play and sing, and knows how to talk to a lady,” was the flippant reply. “I like him.”
“But, as you know, Donald Garnett loves you,” returned Amy Howard, rather tartly.
“Yes,” with a yawn, “he does me that honor, but though young enough, he is so staid.”
“He is an honorable man, a merchant and banker, intent on that business which is to make your life so easy and glorious,” retorted her sister, “while Lieutenant Edward Conder is a fortune-hunter, a man, I believe, of no reputable character.”
“Silence, Amy,” cried Minnie angrily; “I will not allow my friend to be maligned behind his back. He is my friend, and if Donald Garnett is going to begin tyranny before marriage, the sooner he finds another wife the better, that is all I can say. When he meets Edward Conder, I shall watch him.”
“He will not meet Edward Conder here,” was the firm reply; “with James's consent I have forbidden him the house.”