art of the summer in giving such
people what would be the same as country weeks, only you'd take them out
to sea instead of shipping them inland to dawdle around farms. I tell
you that's a splendid idea, and nobody's done it."

Day after day, the project of the yacht was discussed by Mrs. Cliff and
Burke, and she was beginning to view its benevolent features with a
degree of favor when Mrs. Buskirk called. That lady's visit was prompted
partly by a curiosity to see what sort of a woman was the widow of the
Plainton storekeeper who would cruise the next summer in her yacht; and
partly by a feeling that to such a person a certain amount of respect
was due even from a Buskirk.

But when she entered the house, passed through the great hall, and
seated herself in the drawing-room, she saw more than she had expected
to see. She saw a house immeasurably better fitted out and furnished
than her own. She knew the value of the rugs which Miss Shott had
declared must have cost at least twenty dollars each, and she felt,
although she did not thoroughly appreciate, the difference in artistic
merit between the pictures upon her walls and the masterly paintings
which had been selected by the ladies Thorpedyke for the drawing-room of
Mrs. Cliff.

The discovery startled her. She must talk to her husband about it as
soon as he reached home. It was not only money, but a vast deal of
money, and something more, which had done all this.

She had asked for the ladies, knowing that Mrs. Cliff did not live
alone, and all the ladies were at home. Amid those surroundings, the
elder Miss Thorpedyke, most carefully arrayed, made an impression upon
Mrs. Buskirk very different from that she had produced on the occasion
of their single former interview in the darkened little parlor of the
Thorpedyke house.

Mrs. Cliff, in a costume quite simple, but as rich as her conscience
would allow, felt within herself all the uplifting influence of her
wealth, as she stepped forward to salute this lady who had always been
so uplifted by her wealth.

In the course of the conversation, the yacht was mentioned. The visitor
would not go away without being authoritatively informed upon this
subject.

"Oh yes," said Mrs. Cliff, promptly, "I shall have a yacht next summer.
Mr. Burke will select one for me, and I know it will be a good one, for
he thoroughly understands such matters."

Before she left, Mrs. Buskirk invited Mrs. Cliff, the Misses Thorpedyke,
a