"No," was the answer. "Alvarez is, as yet, engaged to none."
This was joyous news for me. "She is a charming girl," I said, "and if I do not see less of her in the future, I am afraid that I may learn to love her."
This confession brought a smile to Vandalia's face. "Alvarez has been loved on more than one occasion," she responded, "but hitherto has always turned a deaf ear to the solicitations of her suitors. She is a strange girl," she continued: "happy in her way, yet inclined to be somewhat dissatisfied with existing conditions, and yearning for that which cannot be. Yet," she went on, "she is noble in her aspirations, amiable in sentiment, and of a loving disposition. When, however, she does love, it will be with an intensity characteristic of her ardent nature."
"It is such women as she," I observed, "that become famous with us, for she possesses sufficient intellect to carry her beyond the ordinary groove of everyday life, of which, by the way, the masses become thoroughly wearied; and, apart altogether from her personal charms, there is a kind of magnetism in her manner, and pointedness in her conversation, that would be certain to seduce attention."
"You attribute, then," she said, "what you are
