n
that Quaker lady's delusion than she did in her ancestors on our side;
and you know, Mr. Millard, we think a good deal of our descent, though
of course we never say anything about it."

It was inevitable that a courteous man like Millard should meet this
speech by saying, "When one has ancestors whose position is not one of
mere social prominence but whose acts are a part of the history of a
nation, it must be hard to forget so important a fact." It was equally
inevitable that even the wary Mrs. Gouverneur could not help
appreciating flattery so apropos of the subject in hand.

"But I have a notion," Millard continued, "that if we could get Miss
Callender to take an interest in society she would prove an ornament to
it and a credit to her family."

Mrs. Gouverneur shook her head doubtfully. "I don't believe it can be
done, though I should be glad if it could."

"Did she tell you that she is deeply interested in that reception to
Baron Pohlsen next week?"

"Yes; she is attached to Mrs. Hilbrough. She makes friends without the
least regard to social consequences, and I believe even has friendships
among the people with whom she is only connected by her mission
Sunday-school class. She stoutly maintained here last night that she
knew a real lady living in three rooms with a husband and four children!
I declare, I like Phillida all the better for this. Her impulses are
very noble, but I can't help wishing she wouldn't do it. It doesn't do
for one at her time of life to be too disinterested, you know."

This turn in the talk threw Millard off the track for a moment. The
mention of people living narrowly brought to his mind his own early life
in a farmhouse, and reminded him of his amiable but socially
unpresentable aunt, whom he was wont faithfully to visit on one Sunday
afternoon in every month. There was just a little cowardly feeling that
should his relations with the family in Avenue C become known among his
friends, his social position might become compromised. He did not know
that all exclusive people in New York have unpresentable kinsfolk hidden
away somewhere, and are ever trembling lest the fact should be known to
some other family that is likewise doing its best to hide some
never-get-on relatives.

Mrs. Gouverneur noticed Millard's heightened color, and feared her
slighting allusion to Mrs. Hilbrough might have annoyed him. Before he
could pull his wits together to reply to her last remark, she added, "