candal gives
a flavor to the interest, and Deena suffered not a whit from the rumor
that she was a deserted wife, with money.

"Oh, yes, there is a husband," the great Mrs. Star admitted. "She
married him for his money, and he has a hobby--fossils, I think it
is--and he has gone to collect them at Cape Horn. She bears his
absence surprisingly well, doesn't she? Old Mrs. Minthrop's son
married the sister, and she begged me to be civil to them. I forget
who she said they were, but _Mayflower_ people, you know."

In this way Deena was passed on, stamped with the hall-mark of the
_Mayflower_. Mrs. Shelton had contributed very generously to her
daughter's outfit for the season in New York. The black velvet picture
dress was only one of several found suitable for her use in the trunk
of finery belonging to the Chicago cousin, and the jewels that had
come into the Shelton family from the same source were worthy of
Deena's beauty. Her clothes were good, and she wore them like a
princess.

One evening late in January, Deena and Ben were dining with a gay
young matron, who, without any especial personal charm herself, had
the faculty of drawing to her house the best element society had to
offer. The engagement had been made for them by Polly, much against
her husband's wishes, and his anxiety at leaving her alone could
hardly be concealed during dinner. As soon as the ladies left the
table he excused himself to his host, and, following the little
hostess into the drawing room, he whispered a few words in her ear,
nodded to Deena and disappeared.

"Your brother-in-law has gone home to his wife, Mrs. Ponsonby," said
the hostess. "I have never seen such devotion." She laughed a trifle
enviously; her own infelicities were the talk of the town.

Deena started forward in alarm.

"Was he sent for? Is my sister ill?" she inquired, nervously, and then
sank back in her chair, smiling, when she found it was only a phase of
young Minthropism.

While her own daylight hours were given to her sister, she was always
pleased to be out of the way in the evening--it left the lovers to
themselves--though she could not quite free herself from a sense of
responsibility to the elder Mrs. Minthrop.

Mrs. Star, who was beside Deena, gave a sniff--if so fine a lady could
be suspected of such a plebeian way of marking her disapprobation.

"My dear," she said, "why should your charming sister be treated as a
prisoner over whom somebody must perp