.

"What's the matter?" asked Leonore.

"We are wondering what will happen," said the host, "if men go in for
headwear too."

"They do that already," said a man, "but unlike women, they do it on the
inside, not the outside of the head."

But nobody laughed, and the dinner seemed to drag from that moment.

Leonore and Dorothy had come together, and as soon as they were in their
carriage, Leonore said, "What a dull dinner it was?"

"Oh, Leonore," cried Dorothy, "don't talk about dinners. I've kept up
till now, bu--" and Dorothy's sentence melted into a sob.

"Is it home, Mrs. Rivington?" asked the tiger, sublimely unconscious, as
a good servant should be, of this dialogue, and of his mistress's tears.

"No, Portman, the Club," sobbed Dorothy.

"Dorothy," begged Leonore, "what is it?"

"Don't you understand?" sobbed Dorothy. "All this fearful anarchist
talk and discontent? And my poor, poor darling! Oh, don't talk to me."
Dorothy became inarticulate once more.

"How foolish married women are!" thought Leonore, even while putting her
arm around Dorothy, and trying blindly to comfort her.

"Is it a message, Mrs. Rivington?" asked the man, opening the
carriage-door.

"Ask for Mr. Melton, or Mr. Duer, and say Mrs. Rivington wishes to see
one of them." Dorothy dried her eyes, and braced up. Before Leonore had
time to demand an explanation, Peter's gentlemanly scoundrel was at the
door.

"What is it, Mrs. Rivington?" he asked.

"Mr. Duer, is there any bad news from New York?"

"Yes. A great strike on the Central is on, and the troops have been
called in to keep order."

"Is that all the news?" asked Dorothy.

"Yes."

"Thank you," said Dorothy. "Home, Portman."

The two women were absolutely silent during the drive. But they kissed
each other in parting, not with the peck which women so often give each
other, but with a true kiss. And when Leonore, in crossing the porch,
encountered the mastiff which Peter had given her, she stopped and
kissed him too, very tenderly. What is more, she brought him inside,
which was against the rules, and put him down before the fire. Then she
told the footman to bring her the evening-papers, and sitting down on
the rug by Betise, proceeded to search them, not now for the political
outlook, but for the labor troubles. Leonore suddenly awoke to the fact
that there were such things as commercial depressions and unemployed.
She read it all with the utmost care. She read the o