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There has always been some disagreement among the young ladies of Bleighton as to Miss Elserly's exact rank among beauties, but there was no possibility of doubt that Miss Elserly attracted more attention than any other lady in the town, and that among her admirers had been every young man among whom other Bleighton ladies of taste would have chosen their life-partners had the power of choosing pertained to their own sex.
When, however, allusion was ever made to "the rivals" no one doubted to whom the reference applied: it was always understood that the young men mentioned were those two of Miss Florence Elserly's admirers for whom Miss Elserly herself seemed to have more regard than she manifested toward any one else.
Brown and Miss Elserly, noticed that when the young couple exchanged words and glances, Miss Elserly's well-trained features were not so carefully guarded as they usually were in society.
Yet, when he called again, several evenings later, he was not as happy as he had hoped to be in Miss Elserly's society, for the lady herself, though courteous and cordial, seemed somewhat embarrassed and distrait, and interrupted the young man on several occasions when he spoke in commendation of some good quality of the major's.
The charm of uncertainty being thus added to the ordinary features of interest which pertain to all persons suspected of being in love, made Miss Elserly's affairs of unusual importance to every one who knew the young lady even by sight, and for three whole months "the rivals" were a subject of conversation next in order to the weather. At length there came a day when the case seemed decided.
Again she met him with many signs of the embarrassment whose cause he now understood so well; yet as he was about to deliver an awkward apology a single look from under Miss Elserly's eyebrows only a glance, but as searching and eloquent as it was swift stopped his tongue. He took Miss Elserly's hand in his own and stammered: "I came to plead for the major."
He owned more property in his own right than the major had misplaced for other people; and though some doubts were expressed as to Miss Elserly's fitness for the position of a minister's wife, the matter was no less interesting as a subject for conversation.
Then it was noticed that while Miss Elserly's beauty grew no less in degree, it changed in kind; that she was more than ever seen in the society of the handsome broker, and that the broker's attentions were assiduous. Then it was suspected that Mr. Brown had proposed and been rejected. Ladies who owed calls to Mr.
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