like to hear of some summer resort
where the men are over sixteen and under sixty."

Mrs. Laflamme liked to drive near the edge as much as Carmen did, and
this piquancy was undeniably an attraction in her case. But there
was this difference between the two: there was a confidence that Mrs.
Laflamme would never drive over the edge, whereas no one could tell what
sheer Carmen might not suddenly take. A woman's reputation is almost as
much affected by the expectation of what she may do as by anything she
has done. It was Fox McNaughton who set up the dictum that a woman may
do almost anything if it is known that she draws a line somewhere.

The lawn party was not at all dull to Margaret. In the first place, she
received a great deal of attention. Henderson's name was becoming
very well known, and it was natural that the splendor of his advancing
fortune should be reflected in the person of his young wife, whose
loveliness was enhanced by her simple enjoyment of the passing hour.
Then the toilets of the women were so fresh and charming, the colors
grouped so prettily on the greensward, the figures of the slender girls
playing at tennis or lounging on the benches under the trees, recalled
scenes from the classic poets. It was all so rich and refined. Nor
did she miss the men of military age, whose absence Mrs. Laflamme had
deplored, for she thought of her husband. And, besides, she found even
the college boys (who are always spoken of as men) amusing, and
the elderly gentlemen--upon whom watering-place society throws much
responsibility--gallant, facetious, complimentary, and active in
whatever was afoot. Their boyishness, indeed, contrasted with--the
gravity of the undergraduates, who took themselves very seriously, were
civil to the young ladies,--confidential with the married women, and
had generally a certain reserve and dignity which belong to persons upon
whom such heavy responsibility rests.

There were, to be sure, men who looked bored, and women who were
listless, missing the stimulus of any personal interest; but the scene
was so animated, the weather so propitious, that, on the whole, a person
must be very cynical not to find the occasion delightful.

There was a young novelist present whose first story, "The Girl I Left
Behind Me," had made a hit the last season. It was thought to take a
profound hold upon life, because it was a book that could not be read
aloud in a mixed company. Margaret was very much inter