night to her tired head on the pillow, what
wonder? She had a position in the great world. In imagination it opened
wider and wider. Could not the infinite possibilities of it fill the
hunger of any soul?

The echoes of the Henderson reception continued long in the country
press. Items multiplied as to the cost. It was said that the sum
expended in flowers alone, which withered in a night, would have endowed
a ward in a charity hospital. Some wag said that the price of the supper
would have changed the result of the Presidential election. Views of the
mansion were given in the illustrated papers, and portraits of Mr. and
Mrs. Henderson. In country villages, in remote farmhouses, this great
social event was talked of, Henderson's wealth was the subject of
conjecture, Margaret's toilet was an object of interest. It was a
shining example of success. Preachers, whose sensational sermons are as
widely read as descriptions of great crimes, moralized on Henderson's
career and Henderson's palace, and raised up everywhere an envied image
of worldly prosperity. When he first arrived in New York, with only
fifty cents in his pocket--so the story ran-and walked up Broadway and
Fifth Avenue, he had nearly been run over at the corner of Twenty-sixth
Street by a carriage, the occupants of which, a lady and gentleman,
had stared insolently at the country youth. Never mind, said the lad to
himself, the day will come when you will cringe to me. And the day did
come when the gentleman begged Henderson to spare him in Wall Street,
and his wife intrigued for an invitation to Mrs. Henderson's ball.
The reader knows there is not a word of truth in this. Alas! said the
preacher, if he had only devoted his great talents to the service of the
Good and the True! Behold how vain are all the triumphs of this
world! see the result of the worship of Mammon! My friends, the age is
materialized, a spirit of worldliness is abroad; be vigilant, lest the
deceitfulness of riches send your souls to perdition. And the plain
country people thanked God for such a warning, and the country girl
dreamed of Margaret's career, and the country boy studied the ways of
Henderson's success, and resolved that he, too, would seek his fortune
in this bad metropolis.

The Hendersons were important people. It was impossible that a knowledge
of their importance should not have a reflex influence upon Margaret.
Could it be otherwise than that gradually the fineness of her
d