xpressed
dissatisfaction with the circle in which you live, and wish to try
another. The only place where people are thoroughly unconventional is on
the stage."

It was useless to discuss the matter further. Aunt Helen was not to be
brought to look at it from my point of view, and I was resolute in my
determination. I wished to meet and know a different set of people from
those of the fashionable world. My ideas on the subject were vague. I
had spoken the truth in saying that I was waiting for something to
suggest itself.

There were of course plenty of earnest and interesting people, if one
knew how to discover them. Naturally I often thought of Aunt Agnes, but
pride interdicted me from applying to her. I felt that she had, to quote
her own words, once for all made overtures to me, which I had declined,
and that I could not bear the humiliation of going to her and confessing
my ingratitude. When she came to spend the evening with us just after
her return from Europe, her first remark to me had been: "Well, a pretty
mess you and your Aunt Helen have made of it!" Beyond this she made no
allusion to what had occurred, but she answered all my questions
regarding her travels with the curtness of one who mistrusts the
interest of the questioner.

However, as we had not met since, I felt in duty bound to pay my
respects to her, and accordingly dropped in one day about luncheon time.
She was not alone; and her visitor, who was a young woman some five
years my senior, stopped short in her animated conversation as I
entered, and swept down upon me with a wealth of facial expression in
response to my Aunt's guttural--

"My niece!"

"This is too pleasant, Miss Harlan. I have heard about you so often, and
wished to meet you. Now that we are acquainted, I do hope we shall be
friends."

"This is Miss Kingsley, Virginia. You will not do amiss to follow in her
footsteps," said Aunt Agnes, by way of setting me down where she
considered I belonged, for I had not so far mortified the flesh as to
alter my street costumes. As a consequence I was the pink of neatness in
a new bonnet which contrasted itself already in my mind with the
over-trimmed attire of my aunt's guest. I noticed that Miss Kingsley
looked me over from head to foot with a sweeping glance as she spoke.

But I felt humble-minded, and disposed to seize any straw that might
help me to realize my desire for new acquaintances. So I smiled sweetly,
as though undisturbed