ve with which
she went to pay an early visit to the Laphams, who had now come up from
Nantasket to Nankeen Square. She said to her daughters that she had
always been a little ashamed of using her acquaintance with them to get
money for her charity, and then seeming to drop it. Besides, it seemed
to her that she ought somehow to recognise the business relation that
Tom had formed with the father; they must not think that his family
disapproved of what he had done. "Yes, business is business," said
Nanny, with a laugh. "Do you wish us to go with you again?"

"No; I will go alone this time," replied the mother with dignity.

Her coupe now found its way to Nankeen Square without difficulty, and
she sent up a card, which Mrs. Lapham received in the presence of her
daughter Penelope.

"I presume I've got to see her," she gasped.

"Well, don't look so guilty, mother," joked the girl; "you haven't been
doing anything so VERY wrong."

"It seems as if I HAD. I don't know what's come over me. I wasn't
afraid of the woman before, but now I don't seem to feel as if I could
look her in the face. He's been coming here of his own accord, and I
fought against his coming long enough, goodness knows. I didn't want
him to come. And as far forth as that goes, we're as respectable as
they are; and your father's got twice their money, any day. We've no
need to go begging for their favour. I guess they were glad enough to
get him in with your father."

"Yes, those are all good points, mother," said the girl; "and if you
keep saying them over, and count a hundred every time before you speak,
I guess you'll worry through."

Mrs. Lapham had been fussing distractedly with her hair and ribbons, in
preparation for her encounter with Mrs. Corey. She now drew in a long
quivering breath, stared at her daughter without seeing her, and
hurried downstairs. It was true that when she met Mrs. Corey before
she had not been awed by her; but since then she had learned at least
her own ignorance of the world, and she had talked over the things she
had misconceived and the things she had shrewdly guessed so much that
she could not meet her on the former footing of equality. In spite of
as brave a spirit and as good a conscience as woman need have, Mrs.
Lapham cringed inwardly, and tremulously wondered what her visitor had
come for. She turned from pale to red, and was hardly coherent in her
greetings; she did not know how they got to where