Rose in Bloom

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1918 edition. Excerpt: ...lay away the bracelet, saying to herself, --"I 'll never wear it till I feel as I did before; then he shall put it on, and I "ll say 'Yes.'" CHAPTER XI SMALL TEMPTATIONS "X""V ROSE, I 've got something so exciting to I I tell you!" cried Kitty Van Tassel, skip J ping into the carriage next morning when her friend called for her to go shopping. Kitty always did have some "perfectly thrilling" communication to make, and Rose had learned to take them quietly: but the next demonstration was a new one; for, regardless alike of curious observers outside and disordered hats within, Kitty caught Rose round the neck, exclaiming in a rapturous whisper, --"My dearest creature, I 'm engaged!" "I 'm so glad! Of course it is Steve?" "Dear fellow, he did it last night in the nicest way, and mamma is so delighted. Now what shall I be married in?" and Kitty composed herself with a face full of the deepest anxiety. "How can you talk of that so soon? Why, Kit, you unromantic girl, you ought to be thinking of your lover and not your clothes," said Rose, amused, yet rather scandalized at such want of sentiment. "I am thinking of my lover; for he says he will not have a long engagement, so I must begin to think about the most important things at once, must n't I?" "Ah, he wants to be sure of you; for you are such a slippery creature he is afraid you 'll treat him as you did poor Jackson and the rest," interrupted Rose, shaking her finger at her prospective cousin, who had tried this pastime twice before, and was rather proud than othenvise of her brief engagements. "You needn't scold, for I know I'm right; and, when you 've been in society as long as I have, you 'll find that the only way to really know a man is to be engaged to him. While they want you, they are all...