season. Were
it the business of the chronicler to study the evolution of this lovely
watering-place from its simple, unconventional, animated days of
natural hospitality and enjoyment, to its present splendid and palatial
isolation of a society--during the season--which finds its chief
satisfaction in the rivalry of costly luxury and in an atmosphere
of what is deemed aristocratic exclusiveness, he would have a theme
attractive to the sociologist. But such a noble study is not for him.
His is the humble task of following the fortunes of certain individuals,
more or less conspicuous in this astonishing flowering of a democratic
society, who have become dear to him by long acquaintance.

It was not the fault of Mrs. Mavick that the season was so frigid, its
glacial stateliness only now and then breaking out in an illuminating
burst of festivity, like the lighting-up of a Montreal ice-palace. Her
spacious house was always open, and her efforts, in charity enterprises
and novel entertainments, were untiring to stimulate a circulation in
the languid body of society.

This clever woman never showed more courage or more tact than in this
campaign, and was never more agreeable and fascinating. She was even
popular. If she was not accepted as a leader, she had a certain standing
with the leaders, as a person of vivacity and social influence. Any
company was eager for her presence. Her activity, spirit, and affability
quite won the regard of the society reporters, and those who know
Newport only through the newspapers would have concluded that the
Mavicks were on the top of the wave. She, however, perfectly understood
her position, and knew that the sweet friends, who exchanged with her,
whenever they met, the conventional phrases of affection commented
sarcastically upon her ambitions for her daughter. It was, at the same
time, an ambition that they perfectly understood, and did not condemn on
any ethical grounds. Evelyn was certainly a sweet girl, rather queerly
educated, and never likely to make much of a dash, but she was an
heiress, and why should not her money be put to the patriotic use of
increasing the growing Anglo-American cordiality?

Lord Montague was, of course, a favorite, in demand for all functions,
and in request for the private and intimate entertainments. He was an
authority in the stables and the kennels, and an eager comrade in
all the sports of the island. His easy manner, his self-possession
everywhere