Aunt Rachel Waxes Uncharitable

"A SLY, artful, treacherous jade?" articulated Mrs. Sutton,
energetically. "I have no patience with her. And they say she is so
overjoyed at her conquest that she trumpets the engagement
everywhere. Such shameless carrying on I never heard of. If she ever
crosses my path I shall treat her to some wholesome truths."

"What good would that do, aunt?" asked Mabel Dorrance, without
raising her head from her sewing. "And what has she done that should
incense you or any one else against her? She was free to choose a
husband, and we have no right to cavil at her choice. I hope she
will be very happy. I used to love her--we loved each other very
fondly once. There are some excellent traits in Rosa's character,
and when she is once married she will be less volatile."

"Don't you believe it. Her flightiness and insincerity are ingrain!
I believed in her once myself--she had such beguiling ways, it was
hard to disapprove of anything she said or did. But I was secretly
aware, all the time, that there was a radical defect in her
composition. A woman who has been engaged, or as good as engaged, to
six or eight different men, cannot retain much purity of mind or
strength of affection. I heard you tell her yourself once that such
unscrupulous flirtation and bandying of hearts were profane touches
that rubbed the down from the peach."