She made me so mad I slapped her."

Jennie's face grew rigid. She sat staring straight before her. Mrs.
Ballinger had called, and Jennie had thought her peculiarly gracious
and helpful in her offer of assistance, and now her little daughter
had said this to Vesta. Where did the child hear it?

"You mustn't pay any attention to her, dearie," said Jennie at
last. "She doesn't know. Your papa was Mr. Stover, and you were born
in Columbus. You mustn't fight other little girls. Of course they say
nasty things when they fight--sometimes things they don't really
mean. Just let her alone and don't go near her any more. Then she
won't say anything to you."

It was a lame explanation, but it satisfied Vesta for the time
being. "I'll slap her if she tries to slap me," she persisted.

"You mustn't go near her, pet, do you hear? Then she can't try to
slap you," returned her mother. "Just go about your studies, and don't
mind her. She can't quarrel with you if you don't let her."

Vesta went away leaving Jennie brooding over her words. The
neighbors were talking. Her history was becoming common gossip. How
had they found out.

It is one thing to nurse a single thrust, another to have the wound
opened from time to time by additional stabs. One day Jennie, having
gone to call on Mrs. Hanson Field, who was her immediate neighbor, met
a Mrs. Williston Baker, who was there taking tea. Mrs. Baker knew of
the Kanes, of Jennie's history on the North Side, and of the attitude
of the Kane family. She was a thin, vigorous, intellectual woman,
somewhat on the order of Mrs. Bracebridge, and very careful of her
social connections. She had always considered Mrs. Field a woman of
the same rigid circumspectness of attitude, and when she found Jennie
calling there she was outwardly calm but inwardly irritated. "This is
Mrs. Kane, Mrs. Baker," said Mrs. Field, introducing her guests with a
smiling countenance. Mrs. Baker looked at Jennie ominously.

"Mrs. Lester Kane?" she inquired.

"Yes," replied Mrs. Fields.

"Indeed," she went on freezingly. "I've heard a great deal about
Mrs.--" accenting the word "Mrs.--Lester Kane."

She turned to Mrs. Field, ignoring Jennie completely, and started
an intimate conversation in which Jennie could have no possible share.
Jennie stood helplessly by, unable to formulate a thought which would
be suitable to so trying a situation. Mrs. Baker soon announced her
departure, although she had intended to stay l