bitterly now that she had not warned Carmen against this very thing.

The Charity Ball that season was doubtless the most brilliant function
of its kind ever held among a people who deny the impossible. The
newspapers had long vied with one another in their advertisements and
predictions; they afterward strove mightily to outdo themselves in
their vivid descriptions of the gorgeous _fete_. The decorative
effects far excelled anything ever attempted in the name of
"practical" charity. The display of gowns had never before been even
closely approximated. The scintillations from jewels whose value
mounted into millions was like the continuous flash of the electric
spark. And the huge assemblage embraced the very cream of the
nobility, the aristocracy, the rich and exclusive caste of a great
people whose Constitution is founded on the equality of men, and who
are wont to gather thus annually for a few hours to parade their
material vestments and divert their dispirited mentalities under the
guise of benefaction to a class for whom they rarely hold a loving
thought.

Again the subtle Mrs. Hawley-Crowles had planned and executed a _coup_.
Mrs. Ames had subscribed the munificent sum of twenty-five thousand
dollars to charity a week before the ball. Mrs. Hawley-Crowles had
waited for this. Then she gloated as she telephoned to the various
newspaper offices that her subscription would be fifty thousand. Did
she give a new note to the Beaubien for this amount? That she
did--and she obtained the money on the condition that the little Inca
princess should lead the grand march. Of course, Mrs. Hawley-Crowles
knew that she must gracefully yield first place to the South American
girl; and yet she contrived to score a triumph in apparent defeat.
For, stung beyond endurance, Mrs. Ames and her daughter Kathleen at the
last moment refused to attend the function, alleging fatigue from a
season unusually exacting. The wily Mrs. Hawley-Crowles had
previously secured the languid young Duke of Altern as a partner for
Carmen--and then was most agreeably thwarted by Ames himself, who,
learning that his wife and daughter would not attend, abruptly
announced that he himself would lead the march with Carmen.

Why not? Was it not quite proper that the city's leading man of
finance should, in the absence of his wife and daughter, and with
their full and gratuitous permission--nay, at their urgent request, so
it was told--lead with this fair young