, Mrs. Heeny, seated on a low chair at Undine's knee, gave the girl's
ignificance; and Undine, echoing the laugh in a murmur of complacency, slipped on
e said, examining the ring while she rubbed her cushioned palm over the girl's brilliant finger
near in fond beatitu
he BOUGHT it for her, M
'ny
er heard of ancestral jewels, Mrs. Spragg? In the Eu-ropean aristocracy they ne
Oh, I thought maybe they were
planation, rose from her seat and
really want me to do your ha
table. Her shoulders shone through transparencies of lace and muslin which sli
to do it-I want to l
" said Mrs. Heeny in a tone that belie
have had that French maid 'round to-night," sighed Mrs
h, Mrs. Spragg leaned back, drinking in through half-closed lids her daughter's loveliness. Some new quality seemed added to Undin
time at this dinner?" Mrs. Heeny pursued, sweepi
nfidently, took up a hand-glass and scrutinized the
k to him," Mrs. Spragg averred
, anyhow," said Mrs. Heeny; and
on't think I
id you read the descri
I wish't I'd 'a had tim
a separate bag for
e her head and gazed through lowered lids
, as the pink petals sank into the hair above the girl's forehead. Undine pushed her chair back, and s
was put in the other night; only hers was a camell
egen looked like a ros
tically. "Sit still a m
'd feel easier if I was
th hands on the girl's shoulders, and bending over to peer at he
om chin to brow, and running rosily over the white s
see you now!" M
oss the room and became lost in a minute ex
Undine slipped fro
To the Prince of Wales. I broke it of
s cautiously over her arm, ad
o to Europe now," sh
careful of my hair!" She ducked gracefully to slip into the lacy fabric which her mother held above her head. A
her's; and Mrs. Spragg, wheeling about to screen her daug
YOU, Mrs. Lipscomb? W
sn't half d
Undine murmured as she slipped her
blond person surged across the threshold. "Seems to me I ought to l
with resentment, muttered to Mrs. Heeny, as she bent down to shake o
agement were new and mysterious to Undine, and none more so than the unaccountable necessity of "dragging"-as she phrased it-Mrs. Spragg into the affair. It was an accepted article of the Apex creed that parental detachment should be completest at the moment when the filial fate was decided; and to find that New Yor
as fortified now by the feeling of power that came with the sense of being loved. If they would only leave her mother out she was
f "Signers" and their females, she felt a conscious joy in her ascendancy. Old Mr. Dagonet-small, frail and softly sardonic-appeared to fall at once under her spell. If she felt, beneath his amen
on; and this was confirmed by such echoes of the short sharp struggle as reached the throbbing listeners at the Stentorian. But the conflict over, the air had immediately cleared, showing the enemy in the act of uncondition
oubts of her good faith, and if she left the burden of the talk to her lively daughter it might
brother, and had guessed that this would make her either a strong ally or a determined enemy. The latter alternative, however, did not alarm the girl. She thought
fferences had already taught her to modulate and lower her voice, and to replace "The I-dea!" and "I wouldn't wonder" by more polished locutions; and she had not been ten minutes at table before she found that to seem very much in love, and a little confused and subdued by the newness and intensity of the sentiment, was, to the Dagonet mind, the becoming attitude for a young lady in her situation. The part was not hard to play, for she
d always been like a kind of back-kitchen to business-the place where the refuse was thrown and the doubtful messes were brewed. As a drawing-room topic, and one t
, was struck by their lack of points. She had never paused to consider what her father and mother were "interested" in, and, challenged to specify, could have named-with sincerity-only herself. On the subject of her New York friends it was not much easier to enlarge; for so far her circle had grown less rapidly than she expected. She had fancied Ralph's wooing would at once admit her to
e me round," she said to Mr. Dagonet, with a side-sparkle for Ralph, whose
mother's friends," the old gentleman rejoin
you into society," Mr. Dagonet pursued; and Undine had the
. We were school-mates,
b? What is Mr. Lip
btleties of a professional classification unknown to Apex had already taught her that in New York it is mo
distinctions. She felt a sudden contempt for Harry Lipscomb, who had already struck her as too loud, and irrelevantly comic. "I gues
w together. "A divorce? H'm-that's b
enough. But he's been a disappointment to her. He isn't in the right set, and I
l on a pause which prolonged and deepened itself to receive them, while every face at the ta
nd's situation be if, as you put it, she 'got
t wouldn't be the reason GIVEN, of course. Any lawyer could
e palpitating, silence
lp
ertain parts of the country such-unfortunate arrangements-are beginning to be tolerated. But in New York,
at gave another amazing glimpse into the camera obscura of New York society. "Do you mean
would depend, I should say, on th
of course! That woul
h. "You see, Undine, you'd better
all depends on YOU! Out in Apex, if a girl marries a man who don't come up to what she expe
" he caught up her joke, tossing it back at her
ly-veined old hand on, hers, and said, with a change of tone that relaxed th