Marstern thought
them both charming. They danced equally well and talked nonsense
with much the same ease and vivacity. He could not decide which
was the prettier, nor did the eyes and attentions of others afford
him any aid. They were general favorites, as well as himself,
although it was evident that to some they might become more,
should they give encouragement. But they were apparently in the
heyday of their girlhood, and thus far had preferred miscellaneous
admiration to individual devotion. By the time the evening was
over Marstern felt that if life consisted of large parties he
might as well settle the question by the toss of a copper.
It must not be supposed that he was such a conceited prig as to
imagine that such a fortuitous proceeding, or his best efforts
afterward, could settle the question as it related to the girls.
It would only decide his own procedure. He was like an old
marauding baron, in honest doubt from which town he can carry off
the richest booty--that is, in case he can capture any one of
them. His overtures for capitulation might be met with the "slings
and arrows of outrageous fortune" and he be sent limping off the
field.
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