Wilhelmina means well , but she has n't a great deal of sense . Cecil Fenwick seemed to be a great favorite with everybody , young and old . He was very rich , too , and Wilhelmina declared that half the girls were after him . `` If it was n't for you , Miss Holmes , I believe I 'd have a try for him myself , in spite of his gray hair and quick temper -- for Mrs. Maxwell says he has a pretty quick temper , but it 's all over in a minute , '' said Wilhelmina , half in jest and wholly in earnest . As for me , I gave up going out at all , even to church . I fretted and pined and lost my appetite and never wrote a line in my blank book . Nancy was half frantic and insisted on dosing me with her favorite patent pills . I took them meekly , because it is a waste of time and energy to oppose Nancy , but , of course , they did n't do me any good . My trouble was too deep-seated for pills to cure . If ever a woman was punished for telling a lie I was that woman . I stopped my subscription to the Weekly Advocate because it still carried that wretched porous plaster advertisement , and I could n't bear to see it . If it had n't been for that I would never have thought of Fenwick for a name , and all this trouble would have been averted . One evening , when I was moping in my room , Nancy came up . `` There 's a gentleman in the parlor asking for you , Miss Charlotte . '' My heart gave just one horrible bounce . `` What -- sort of a gentleman , Nancy ? '' I faltered . `` I think it 's that Fenwick man that there 's been such a time about , '' said Nancy , who did n't know anything about my imaginary escapades , `` and he looks to be mad clean through about something , for such a scowl I never seen . '' `` Tell him I 'll be down directly , Nancy , '' I said quite calmly . As soon as Nancy had clumped downstairs again I put on my lace fichu and put two hankies in my belt , for I thought I 'd probably need more than one .
Then I hunted up an old Advocate for proof , and down I went XXXXX the parlor .
If after as because for in on than to with