looking girl who drives cows down the
beech lane every morning and evening is," said Pauline Palmer, at the
tea table of the country farmhouse where she and her aunt were
spending the summer. Mrs. Wallace had wanted to go to some fashionable
watering place, but her husband had bluntly told her he couldn't
afford it. Stay in the city when all her set were out she would not,
and the aforesaid farmhouse had been the compromise.

"I shouldn't suppose it could make any difference to you who she is,"
said Mrs. Wallace impatiently. "I do wish, Pauline, that you were more
careful in your choice of associates. You hobnob with everyone, even
that old man who comes around buying eggs. It is very bad form."

Pauline hid a rather undutiful smile behind her napkin. Aunt Olivia's
snobbish opinions always amused her.

"You've no idea what an interesting old man he is," she said. "He can
talk more entertainingly than any other man I know. What is the use of
being so exclusive, Aunt Olivia? You miss so much fun. You wouldn't be
so horribly bored as you are if you fraternized a little with the
'natives,' as you call them."

"No, thank you," said Mrs. Wallace disdainfully.

"Well, I am going to try to get acquainted with that girl," said
Pauline resolutely. "She looks nice and jolly."

"I don't know where you get your low tastes from," groaned Mrs.
Wallace. "I'm sure it wasn't from your poor mother. What do you
suppose the Morgan Knowles would think if they saw you taking up with
some tomboy girl on a farm?"

"I don't see why it should make a great deal of difference what they
would think, since they don't seem to be aware of my existence, or
even of yours, Aunty," said Pauline, with twinkling eyes. She knew it
was her aunt's dearest desire to get in with the Morgan Knowles'
"set"--a desire that seemed as far from being realized as ever. Mrs.
Wallace could never understand why the Morgan Knowles shut her from
their charmed circle. They certainly associated with people much
poorer and of more doubtful worldly station than hers--the Markhams,
for instance, who lived on an unfashionable street and wore quite
shabby clothes. Just before she had left Colchester, Mrs. Wallace had
seen Mrs. Knowles and Mrs. Markham together in the former's
automobile. James Wallace and Morgan Knowles were associated in
business dealings; but in spite of Mrs. Wallace's schemings and
aspirations and heart burnings, the association remained a purely
busines