A Hazard of New Fortunes, Part Third

e had some vague notion of the distinction of arriving late at any sort of entertainment. Mrs. Mandel insisted upon the difference between this musicale and an ordinary reception; but Christine

ng about their coming late, and so Mela did not make any excuse, and Miss Vance seemed to expect none. She glanced with a sort of surprise at Conrad, when Christine introduced him; Mela did not know whether she liked their bringing him, till she shook hands with him, and said: "Oh, I am very glad indeed! Mr. Dryfoos and I have met before." Without explaining where or when, she led them to her aunt and presented them, and then said, "I'm going to put you with some friends of yours," and quickly seated them next the Marches. Mela liked that well enough; she thought she might have some joking with Mr. March, for all his wife was so stiff; but the look which Christine wore seemed to forbid, provisionally at least, any such recr

ot introduced, for one thing; but it appeared to Mela that they might have got introduced, if they had any sense; she saw them looking at her, and she was glad she had dressed so much; she was dressed more than any other lady there, and either because she was the most dressed of any person there, or because it had got around who her father was, she felt that she had made an impression on the young men. In her satisfaction with this, and from her good nature, she was contented to be served with her refreshments after the concert by Mr. March, and to r

cried Mela, tasting the i

s, with all her slang and brag, but he decided that he would have to subdue her a great deal: he did not see how he could reconcile the facts of her conversation with the facts of her appearance: her beauty, her splendor of dress, her apparent right to be where she was. These things perplexed him; he was afraid the great American novel, if true, must be incredible. Mela said he ought to hear her sister go on about New York when they first came; but she reckoned that Christine was getting so she could put up with it a little better, now. She looked significantly across the room to the place where Christine was now talking with Beaton; and the student of human nature asked, Was she here? and, Would she introduce him? Mela said she would, the first chance she got; and she added, They would be much pleased to have him call. She felt herself

ything that's where she met him. I wisht I could tell Christine! Bu

ure said, politely, "Oh,

her family by their names, as if he were already intimate with them; he fancied that if he could get that in skillfully, it would be a valuable color in his study; the English lord whom she should astonish with it began to form himself out of the dramatic nebulosity in h

everity of some of Christine's judgments of their looks and costumes. He did this out of a sort of unreasoned allegiance to Margaret, whom he was in the mood of wishing to please by being very kind and good, as she

rgaret in talk with her brother, "I don't

said Beaton, with dreamy, affectation. "She i

se Conrad ever went anywhere

aton suggested. "She goes amon

ason she came to see

ly allowed himself to deny the possibility of any such motive in that case. He added: "I am so glad you know he

Christine retorted. "Well, I must say you'r

t was; and he saw she had understood that the names were of consequence; but she seemed to feel her equality with them all. Her serenity was not obviously akin to the savage stoicism in which Beaton hid his own consciousness of social inferiority; but having won his way in the world so far by his talent, his personal quality, he did not conceive the simple fact in her case. Christine was self-possessed because she felt that a knowledge of her f

deep gurgles amid the unimaginable confidences she was making him about herself, her family, the staff of 'Every Other Week,' Mrs. Mandel, and the kind of life they had all led before she came to them. He was not a blind devotee of art for art's sake, and though he felt that if one could portray Mela just as she was she would be th

Your brother and I are rather old acquaintances, though I never knew who he was before. I don't know just how to say we

s her first feeling in regard to any new thing. What she concluded was that this girl was trying to get in with them, for reasons of her own

er she found it: "I don't wonder! You become so absorbed in such work that you think nothing else is worth while. But I

tly; "we must be going. Me

e advanced upon them undismayed, and took the hand Mrs. H

ed the elder lady. "So v

" said Mela, cordially. "I hain't

ame polite murmur she had used with Christine; but she

ulder to the student of human nature, "The next time I se

conjecture. She could only say to Conrad, as if recurring to the subject, "I hope we can get our friends to play for us some nig

He turned back hesitatingly to Mrs. Horn, and sai

lad," she replie

remaining seats home in her carriage. Beaton gloomily refused, and she kept herself from asking the studen

Mrs. Horn, with bated triumph,

n a failure. I don't think we've given Miss Dryfoos a pleasure, but perhaps n

Horn, philosophically,

ived sooner or later.

rather let some one el

ns didn

ards. I couldn

suppose Mr. Dryfoos is one o

," said Margaret. "I met

his first name. I thin

ms devoted to the work.

od

re in her assent. "The younger girl seemed mo

and a pursed mouth of humorous suffering.

other one some hints for that quaint dress of hers? I don't imagine that black and l

explained. "And artists see points

" Mrs. Horn insinuated.

he girl, with a generous indign

icturesque, it doesn't follow that

th a man lik

nterested motive in paying court to Miss Mela-Pamela, I suppose, is he

y kind person,"

yfoos pays

t that. But that wouldn't m

by the nobleness which it came from. She liked Margaret to be hig

e they must spare in carriage hire at any rate. As soon as they

alk to that girl so long, Ba

ne else to do it, till

se he thinks it's to his interest. If she had no relation

vague unindividualized essence, not quite without form and void, but nounless and pronounless. I call that a much more beautiful mental attitu

that it's t

ve that it's

could you excuse

n capable of it in my, pl

afraid that I should. But tel

e that in a real exigency, I could truckle

st always be a man, especially with that horrid old Mr. Dryfoos. Promise me t

s right and

You know what I mea

and let you do the yielding. As for me,

w, who's so different from all the rest; he's awful

e martyrs a great de

be there," Mrs. March pur

e had come to call on them and invited them; and first they didn't know how they could come till they thought of making Conrad bring them. But she

money; it can't be!

know. We all

s so secure. She needn't pay cour

ee a difference, but nothing radical, nothing painful. People who get up in the world by service to others-through letters, or art, or science-may have their modest little misgivings as to their social value, but people that rise by money-especially if their gains are sudden-never have. And that's the kind of people that form our nobility; there's no use pretending that we haven't a nobility; we might as well pretend we haven't first-class cars in the presence of a vestibuled Pullman. Those girls had no more doubt of their right to

n't get infected with Lindau's ideas of rich

the evening's enjoyment is over. I've got my society smile off, and I'm radiantly hap

as talkun' to Mr. Beaton. She pretended to be talkun' to Conrad, but she kep' her eye on you pretty close, I can tell you. I bet

in kind, and not at all because she felt spitefully toward Miss Vance, or in anywise wished her ill. "Who was tha

el ingratitude. "It's a lie! I

are such natures in it, and that they seem to come up out of the lowly earth as well as down from the high heaven. In the heart of this man well on toward thirty there had never been left the stain of a base thought; not that suggestion and conjecture had not visited him, but that he had not entertained them, or in any-wise made them his. In a Catholic age and country, he would have been one of those monks who are sainted after death for the angelic purity of their lives, and whose names are invoked by believers in moments of trial, like San Luigi Gonzaga. As he now walked along thinking, with a lover's beatified smile on his face, of how Margaret Vance had spoken and looked, he dr

OR'S BO

tiona

e, as a good hu

that money here

n't been pu

buryin'

e who have not pa

d git well-

not yet know that

ts favors are

sure of necessity

g his cruelty, t