today, she
must take a bolder one tomorrow--more display, more servants, some new
invention of luxury and extravagance. And seeing, as I say, the inside
of this life and what it required, and how triumphs and notoriety were
gained, was it a wonder that she gradually became in her gayety cynical,
in her judgments bitter?

I am not criticising her. What are we, who have had no opportunities,
to sit in judgment on her! I believe that it is true that it was at
her solicitation that Henderson at last did endow a university in the
Southwest. I know that her name was on all the leading charities of the
city. I know that of all the patronesses of the charity ball her costume
was the most exquisite, and her liberality was most spoken of. I know
that in the most fashionable house of worship (the newspapers call it
that) she was a constant attendant; that in her modest garb she never
missed a Lenten service; and we heard that she performed a novena during
this penitential season.

Why protract the story of how Margaret was lost to us? Could this
interest any but us--we who felt the loss because we still loved her?
And why should we presume to set up our standard of what is valuable in
life, of what is a successful career? She had not become what we hoped,
and little by little all the pleasure of intercourse on both sides, I
dare say, disappeared. Could we say that life, after all, had not given
her what she most desired? Rather than write on in this strain about
her, I would like to read her story as it appeared to the companions
whose pleasures were her pleasures, whose successes were her
successes--her story written by one who appreciated her worldly
advantages, and saw all the delight there was in this attractive
worldliness.

What comfort there was in it we had in knowing that she was a favorite
in the society of which we read such glowing descriptions, and that no
one else bore its honors more winningly. It was not an easy life, with
all its exactions and incessant movement. It demanded more physical
strength than most women possess, and we were not surprised to hear from
time to time that she was delicate, and that she went through her season
with feverish excitement. But she chose it; it had become necessary to
her. Can women stop in such a career, even if they wish to stop?

Yes, she chose it. I, for one, never begrudged her any pleasure she had
in life, and I do not know but she was as happy as it is possible for
hum