rred playing the safe game now, and only wanted to feel
sure of her. He had done his best to be agreeable, and could hardly
doubt that he had made an impression. He dressed well when in the
city,--even elegantly,--he had many of the lesser social
accomplishments, was a good dancer, and compared favorably in all such
matters with the more dashing young fellows in society. He was a better
talker than most of them, and he knew more about the girl he was dealing
with than they could know. "You have only got to say the word, Murray,"
Mrs. Clymer Ketchum said to her relative, "and you can have her. But
don't be rash. I believe you can get Berengaria if you try; and there's
something better there than possibilities." Murray Bradshaw laughed, and
told Mrs. Clymer Ketchum not to worry about him; he knew what he was
doing.

It so happened that Myrtle met Master Byles Gridley walking with Mr.
Gifted Hopkins the day before the party. She longed to have a talk with
her old friend, and was glad to have a chance of pleasing her poetical
admirer. She therefore begged her hostess to invite them both to her
party to please her, which she promised to do at once. Thus the two
elegant notes were accounted for.

Mrs. Clymer Ketchum, though her acquaintances were chiefly in the world
of fortune and of fashion, had yet a certain weakness for what she
called clever people. She therefore always variegated her parties with a
streak of young artists and writers, and a literary lady or two; and, if
she could lay hands on a first-class celebrity, was as happy as an
Amazon who had captured a Centaur.

"There's a demonish clever young fellow by the name of Lindsay," Mr.
Livingston Jenkins said to her a little before the day of the party.
"Better ask him. They say he's the rising talent in his line,
architecture mainly, but has done some remarkable things in the way of
sculpture. There's some story about a bust he made that was quite
wonderful. I'll find his address for you." So Mr. Clement Lindsay got
his invitation, and thus Mrs. Clymer Ketchum's party promised to bring
together a number of persons with whom we are acquainted, and who were
acquainted with each other.

Mrs. Clymer Ketchum knew how to give a party. Let her only have _carte
blanche_ for flowers, music, and champagne, she used to tell her lord,
and she would see to the rest,--lighting the rooms, tables, and toilet.
He needn't be afraid; all he had to do was to keep out of the way.