chance to learn music,
dancing, drawing, and the way of behaving in company. There was a
chance, too, to pick up available acquaintances, for many rich people
sent their daughters to the school, and it was something to have been
bred in their company.

There was the usual division of the scholars into a first and second
set, according to the social position, mainly depending upon the
fortune, of the families to which they belonged. The wholesale dealer's
daughter very naturally considered herself as belonging to a different
order from the retail dealer's daughter. The keeper of a great hotel and
the editor of a widely circulated newspaper were considered as ranking
with the wholesale dealers, and their daughters belonged also to the
untitled nobility which has the dollar for its armorial bearing. The
second set had most of the good scholars, and some of the prettiest
girls; but nobody knew anything about their families, who lived off the
great streets and avenues, or vegetated in country towns.

Myrtle Hazard's advent made something like a sensation. They did not
know exactly what to make of her. Hazard? Hazard? No great firm of that
name. No leading hotel kept by any Hazard, was there? No newspaper of
note edited by anybody called Hazard, was there? Came from where? Oxbow
Village. O, rural district. Yes.--Still they could not help owning that
she was handsome,--a concession which of course had to be made with
reservations.

"Don't you think she's vurry good-lookin'?" said a Boston girl to a New
York girl. "I think she's real pooty."

"I dew, indeed. I didn't think she was haaef so handsome the feeest
time I saw her," answered the New York girl.

"What a pity she hadn't been bawn in Bawston!"

"Yes, and moved very young to Ne Yock!"

"And married a sarsaparilla man, and lived in Fiff Avenoo, and moved in
the fust society."

"Better dew that than be strong-mainded, and dew your own cook'n, and
live in your own kitch'n."

"Don't forgit to send your card when you are Mrs. Old Dr. Jacob!"

"Indeed I shaaen't. What's the name of the alley, and which bell?" The
New York girl took out a memorandum-book as if to put it down.

"Hadn't you better let me write it for you, dear?" said the Boston girl.
"It is as well to have it legible, you know."

"Take it," said the New York girl. "There's tew York shill'ns in it when
I hand it to you."

"Your whole quarter's allowance, I bullieve,--ain't it?" said the
Boston girl