e clerk, showing off the last importation of
dress-fabrics, had whispered to her, "That just behind you is Miss
Compton," and Judith, breathless with interest, turned her full
bright eye upon the one who, in Judith's own words, had been "the most
important person socially" until she came.

"She looks just as I thought she would," she said low to the clerk;
and she contrived to find herself near the door when Celia was
leaving, and, smiling an assured smile, she said, "I am so glad to see
you back, Miss Compton. I have heard so much about you, I feel as if
you were already an old acquaintance. I wish you would come and see
me. I suppose we are still new-comers to you, so according to the ways
here it would be your place to call first, wouldn't it, though I
shouldn't mind a bit coming first, if you say so...."

Celia, flushing at the intolerable offensiveness to her of this,
replied in a low soft voice that she was at present not going out at
all, and with a bow of the most finished perfection passed forth. It
had been so well done that Judith, who felt snubbed at the moment,
rejected, upon consideration, the idea of a repulse, and the year
after, when Miss Compton was out of mourning, sent her an invitation.
Celia declined it in a note which contained not one discoverable
prickle, but yet had about it an atmosphere that seemed to numb
Judith's hand which held it. To the most critical examination,
however, it showed nothing that was not completely civil, and the
unwary Judith permitted herself to act upon the verdict of her brain,
and again, and at intervals again, made overtures to Celia, of whom
she had from the first glance fallen into the most extravagant
admiration. It was her native conceit which prevented her for such a
long time from reaching the certainty that a closer acquaintance with
her was not desired. For what reason?... How could such a thing be?...
She was in her proper esteem so beyond question as desirable an
acquaintance as any person could have. And she was attracted by Celia
as she had never been by woman or man before. Though she was far from
being so humble as to wish herself in any wise altered to resemble
her, it was the difference between them, no doubt, which gave such
fascination for her to Celia's every way of being, her coolness,
restraint, that personal pride so quiet it had the face almost of
modesty, and her manner! her air!... Covering the house with white
paint was, however, the only