The Golden House

n the invitation came. The unmentioned fact was that Jack had taken a little flier in Oshkosh, and a hint from Henderson one ev

Jack was querying, as he and old Fairf

ood-natured thing still, now a

ho was

you wouldn't know; that was ten years ago. Ther

ow

good friends before M

you call her, w

d. She's a social climber; bou

he pr

. I saw her once at Homburg, on

myself, that would mix a man up in

t be int

raight game and when to propitiate. I'll bet a five she t

fluence on h

in his face. I've known Henderson since he came fresh into the Street. He'd rarely knife a frien

. Chesney and the Chesney girls, and Miss Tavish, who sat on Jack's right, but the rest of the guests were unknown to Jack, except by name. There was a strong dash of the Street in the mixture, a

time; and the prevailing air was that of refined sensuousness. Life, she said, was her idea, life in its utmost expression, untrammeled, and yes, a little Greek. Freedom was perhaps the word, and yet her latest notion was simplicity. The dinner was simple. Her dress was exceedingly simple, save that it had in it somewhere a touch of audacity, revealing in a flash of invitation the hidden nature of the woman. She knew herself better than any one knew her, except Henderso

French novels or such American tales as had the cachet of social riskiness. But Carmen liked the room above all others. She enjoyed her cigarette there, and had a fancy for pouring her five-o'c

. He had not kept the freshness of youth so well as Carmen, perhaps because of his New England conscience. To his guest he was courteous, seemed to be making an effor

dith, looking up brig

xactly, but things, d

hat. There is so much to

know in the city the gospel is

r. Henderson, what is it all for--this conflict

s. Delancy," added Henderson, with an accent of seriousness, "I

edits you with findin

Mrs. Delancy? No! Of course you do not. But the intere

it was th

If I gambled it would be a question of nerve. I suppose th

ng--just winning? Don't you get tired

on. Perhaps he remembered another face as sweet as hers, and ideals, faint and long ago, that were once mixed with his ideas of suc

for a minute how the world looks through your eyes." And then he added, in a d

she inte

there was too much of it." And Edith coul

woman had felt her way along from the heresy trial, through Tuxedo and the Independent Theatre and the Horse Show,

to the Conventional Club tonigh

ack. "Mrs. Delancy said

for it, for myself

Miss Tavish. "It

want. Why, what do you do wit

re's one

mean between twelve

ghing out loud, "I g

to after the theatres and the dinners; after the other p

many places of amusement for the rich; I understand. After th

dnight Mission for the rich. They never h

ice," said Miss

there that you want to see at other places to whi

o, and what all the theatrical people say needs to be done, to elevate th

ant to elevate the st

ience is select and elevated, it wants to see the same

ing an earnest simplicity into her eyes, "but why s

rpentine dances and the London topical son

that women should see women dance and throw somersaults on the stage as that m

t the Conventional was for the benefit of the au

t to know life? How are they to take their place

rpentine dancer's or mine," said Jack, as if he were studyi

ooked up

id Miss Tavish, shaking her head.

o. I wish I knew what was right." And Carmen looked mournfully

does is sure to be righ

c glance, tempered by a grateful smil

of Miss Tavish leading him a serpentine dance, and of Carmen sweetly beckoning him to a pl

e ennui of it all! No one expressed it, but Henderson could not help looking it, and Carmen saw it. That charming hostess had been devoting herself to Edith since dinner. She was so full of sympathy with the East-Side work, asked a hundred questions about it, and declared that

n?" sugge

the better of everybody, and be the money king of New York. But I should no

ll come to our box." The Van Dams would go, Miss Tavish, the Chesneys; the suggestion was a relief to everybody. Only Mr. Henderson pleaded im

," said Jack, a little shade

y; "you can drop me on the w

t me to go, dear?"

e; I want you

nal, between Carmen and Miss Tavish, and saw, through the slight haze of smoke, beyond the orchestra, the praiseworthy ef

iend Mr. Delancy and Miss Tavish were doing their part. Edith lay awake listening for Jack's return. And in an alley off Rivington Street

ong had Carmen waited on the social outskirts; and now she had come into her kingdom, was she anything but a tinsel queen? Even Henderson, the great Henderson, did the friends of his youth respect him? had he public esteem? Carmen used to cut out the newspaper paragraphs that extolled Henderson's domestic virtue and his generosity to his family, and show them to her lord, with a queer smile on her face. Miss Tavish, in the nervous consciousness of fleeting years, was she not still waiting, dashing here and there like a bird in a net for the sort of freedom, audacious as she was, that seemed denied her? She was

s are bare and not clean. In one of the beds are two children, sleeping soundly, and on the foot of it is a middle-aged woman, in a soiled woolen gown with a thin figured shawl drawn about her shoulders, a dirty cap half concealing her frowzy hair; she looks tired and worn and sleepy. On the other bed lies a girl of twenty years, a woman in experience. The k

hink he w

resently. He

the city was not to be distinguished from a working-woman. Her friends, indeed, said that she had not the least care for her personal appearance, and unless she was watched, she was sure to go out in her shabbiest gown and most battered hat. She wore tonight a brown ulster and a nondescript black bonnet drawn close down

ve occurred to the objects of her ministrations to overwhelm her with thanks. They trusted her, that was all. They met her always with a pleasant recognition. She belonged perhaps to their world. Perhaps they would have said that "Dr. Leigh don't handsome much," but their idea was that her face was good. That was what anybody

eir discouragements; and in her heart--though you would not discover this till you had known her long and well--there was a burning sympathy with them, a sympathy born in her, and not assumed for the sake of having a career. It was this that had impelled her to get a medical education, which she obtained by hard labor and self-denial. To her this was not a means of livelihood, but simply that she might be of service to

d that was peace. One o'clock--half-past one. The door opened softly. The old woman rose from the foot of the bed with a start and a low "Herr! gross Gott." It was Father Damon. The girl opened her eyes with a frightened look at first, and then an eager appeal. Dr. Leigh rose to make

mouth straight, the eyes deep gray, sometimes dreamy and puzzling, again glowing with an inner fervor. A face of long vigils and the schooled calmness of repressed energy. You would say a fanatic of God, with a dash of self-consciousness. Dr. Leigh knew him well. They met often on their diverse errands, and she liked, when she could, to go to vespers in the little mission chapel of St. Anselm, where he minist

an socialist; he spoke on the inequalities of taxation; the strikers were pretty sure of his sympathy; he argued the injustice of the present ownership of land. Some said that he had joined a lodge of the Knights of Labor. Perhaps it was these things, quite as much as his singleness of purpose and his spiritual fervor, that drew Dr. L

not long ago at twilight, with her cough and her pale face, in a silk gown and flower

he girl, looking up wistfully,

y. "Yes, my daughter, if you repent. It

oice went on in supplication the girl's eyes closed again, and a sweet smile played about her mouth; it was the innocent s

emed to be sleeping. They all

ain?" he aske

wan smile on her face. "It is I, yo

and said, quite low, "