't it? I should simply die if I were compelled to
live here."

"You would never stand it. You'd run away, Landis, or do something
desperate. Isn't this where the Gleasons live?"

"It used to be. But they live at Gleasonton now. They have a perfectly
elegant place there. Of course, it is just their summer home. I'd like to
take you down there sometime. I feel like taking the liberty for they are
such old friends. They are in Washington during the winter. He's United
States Senator, you know."

"Have you ever been there to visit them, Landis?"

"How could I, Min? I'll have to leave all such times until I've finished
school and have come out. I don't doubt that Mrs. Gleason will ask me
there for my first season. She's not a society woman. She hasn't much
ability that way, and has sense enough to know it; so she goes in for
charity, and temperance work, and all that."

A suppressed exclamation from the seat behind her caused Elizabeth to look
around. She was just in time to see the plainly-dressed woman suppress a
laugh. As Elizabeth glanced at her, she was pretending absorption in a
magazine, but her lips were yet twitching with amusement.

The baby across the aisle began a low, fretful cry. The mother soothed it
as best she could, holding it in her arms, patting it on the back, and
trying all manner of devices to keep it quiet. A little boy several years
old was on the seat beside her, and the instant the baby began to fret, he
set up a distinct and independent howl of his own.

Landis made no attempt to conceal her discomfort.

"How annoying!" she exclaimed in tones that could be heard half the length
of the car. "Anything but a crying baby! Why don't women with babies stay
at home? It wouldn't matter so much if there was a decent train on this
road, but one can't get a Pullman for love or money. If there is anything
I despise, it's traveling with a mixed set. You never know whom you are
getting next to."

Her companion agreed, offering her subtle flattery in sympathizing that
one of her station should be compelled to mingle with such people.

Again Elizabeth, in her hurried glance, caught a twinkle of amusement in
the eyes of the woman back of her. Elizabeth could form no opinion about
the girls in the seat ahead. She had no precedent to guide her. All she
knew was learned from her parents and Miss Hale.

The train had been advancing at a steady if not rapid rate. They had
descended the mountain, and were mo