fused some alluring invitations and was quite cheerful
about it. "She must give up these parties--she could not always be
accepting the Nortons' hospitality, etc." But Milly was not a nagger, at
least not with men. Hers was a pleasant, cheerful nature, and she bathed
the West Laurence Avenue house in several beams of sunshine.

"She's a good girl, mother," Horatio said proudly. "And she's all we've
got. It would be a pity not to give her what she wants."

A complete expression of the submissive attitude of the new parent!

"It may not be good for her," Grandma Ridge objected, after her
generation.

"Well, if she only marries right."

More and more it was in their minds that Milly was destined to make "a
great match." Purely as a business matter that must be taken into
account. So Horatio thought harder about getting into business for
himself, and his little corner of the world revolved more and more about
the desires of a woman.

* * * * *

Fortunately for the peace of the Ridge household, the Kemps invited
Milly to go to New York with them in the spring. They were still
furnishing the new house and had in mind some pictures. Mr. Kemp had
rather "gone in for art" of late, and the banking business had been
good.... To Milly, who had never been on a sleeping-car in her life (the
Ridge migrations hitherto having been accomplished in day coaches
because of economy and because Grandma Ridge dreaded night travel), it
was a thrilling prospect. Her feeling for Eleanor Kemp had been dimmed
somewhat by the acquisition of newer and gayer friends, but it revived
into a brilliant glow.

"You dear thing!... You're sure I won't be in the way?... It will be too
heavenly for words!"

To her husband Mrs. Kemp reported Milly's ecstasy laughingly, saying,--

"If any one can enjoy things as much as Milly Ridge, she ought to have
them," to which the practical banker observed,--"She'll get them when
she picks the man."

So they made the wonderful journey and put up at the pleasant old
Windsor on the avenue, for the era of vast caravansaries had not yet
begun. Fifth Avenue in ninety was not the cosmopolitan thoroughfare it
is to-day. Nevertheless, to Milly's inexperienced eyes, accustomed to
the gloom of smoke, the ill-paved, dirty streets of mid-western cities,
New York was even noble in its splendor. They went to the Metropolitan
Museum, to the private galleries of the dealers, to Tiffany's, where