new ways. But that Mrs. Trenham seemed like some of
the Laconia folks."

"Yes, we will go again next Sunday," said Lilian. "And to tea the first
time we are invited."

CHAPTER IV

THE GRACE OF ENDEAVOR

The door of Mrs. Boyd's room stood partly open. Louie Howe gave a light
tap and marched in with an air that was rather insolent.

"Oh, Mrs. Boyd, I've given my walking dress such an awful tear! Mrs.
Barrington said she was quite sure you could mend it. You see I'm going
to a sort of musicale in about an hour and I couldn't take it to the
tailors. It's my best suit, too, and--it must be done very neatly."

Mrs. Boyd examined it. "Yes, it's pretty bad, I've done worse though,
and part of it will be under the plait. Let me see if I have the right
color."

She opened a box of spools and took up several colors to match.

"Oh, yes, here is one," and she gave a smile of gratification.

Louie dropped into a chair. Was she going to wait? Lilian wondered.

"What a pleasant room this is, Mrs. Boyd! But all the rooms are just
cozy and nice. Of course Mrs. Barrington can afford to keep it in a
lovely fashion for her prices are high and she doesn't care to take any
scholars only from the best families. I do wonder how that Nevins girl
slipped in? Her father is a first-class banker, I have understood. They
have a big house in New York and a summer house at Elberon, and their
New York house is rented out for seven thousand dollars; but isn't she a
terror? How do you stand her, Miss Boyd?"

"She has had very little training. Her mother has been ill and seems
very indulgent," answered Lilian quietly. "Yet she may make a very fair
scholar."

"It's funny to hear her talk. Bragging, we call it. Do you suppose the
stories are true?"

"Mrs. Barrington would know," was the cautious reply.

"Well, I suppose she must be satisfactory or she wouldn't be here. But
there's common blood back of her somewhere. Money doesn't give you the
prestige of good birth. That always shows--don't you think so?" with a
confident upward glance.

"I have not had experience enough with the world to judge," answered
Lilian. "We lived in a factory town--"

"And in such places there are a good many newly rich, and they think
they have it all."

Mrs. Boyd had been straightening out the rent and basting it on a piece
of stiff paper.

"I wonder if you would mind asking Mrs. Dane if there were irons on the
range."

She looked straight at Lo