Six to One a Nantucket Idyl

er plain hints on his part of a willingness to be asked. He misled this because he began to want to see them separately, at least some of them. It was only of late that he had experienced this desire, having at first been perfectly satisfied with their general effect, set, as it were, iu a cluster. The six girls had so long been intimate that their characters had to an unusual extent come to adapt themselves to one another, so that each one set the others off and was herself complementary to the general effect. Edgerton felt that, as regarded most of the girls, this joint effect was likely to be the most satisfactory, and that if seen apart they might appear to less advantage. But in regard to one or two he did not have this feeling. One afternoon, being alone with Belle in the sitting- room, he took an opportunity of hinting, in a matter-of- course way, that he thought of making a call or two on the members of the Prism. She looked up quickly from her sewing, and asked with evident curiosity? " Who has asked you to call ? " "Why, none of them have exactly asked me," he replied, " but I fancied that, seeing we are getting well acquainted, it would not be rude to make a call or two of my own motion." "Whom were you going.to call on, if you don't mind telling?" He would not have minded, but he thought he detected an accent of special interest in his cousin's tone of affected indifference, and so replied in non-committal fashion. She glanced at him ...