Sweethearts and Wives Author:T. S. Arthur Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. A CHOICE OF LOVERS. "Hs is always finding some fault with me," was the reply of Grace to her aunt, who had asked her the reason of her never f... more »eeling happy after being in Armstrong's company. " That is not very pleasant, certainly," Mrs. Ellis said. " Still, the friend who tells us our faults may be far more sincerely attached to us than the one who is ever flowing in with all we say, regardless whether we be right or wrong. The true question for you to ask yourself is, whether Mr. Armstrong is right when he differs from you." " He is sometimes right and sometimes wrong; but then I don't like his manner of opposing me. It is dogmatical; and, besides, it is a breach of courtesy for a young man to be forever differing in opinion from a woman." " In what did he differ from you to-day ?" Grace hesitated for a few moments, and then said, " A few evenings ago, as you remember, I was at Mrs. Speare's. Mrs. P was there, whom we all know to be strongly opposed to dancing. Mary Speare wanted to have a cotillon, and had the set made up, all except one. Knowing Mrs. P 's prejudice against this innocent and healthy amusement, I declined dancing, simply out of respect to her feelings ; and so the cotillon could not be formed. I had occasion to mention this to-day,and Mr. Armstrong at once declared that I acted wrong. It is too bad to have even our innocent acts, and those, too, in which we practice self- denial, condemned, and that, too, as if they were heinous offences !" " Upon what ground did he condemn the act ?" " Upon the ground that it is wrong to refrain from doing a thing right in itself, because it may offend another's prejudices." " Well, did he not prove his position to be true ?" " I can't say that he altogether convinced my rea...« less