iving
very close to the Cowperwoods' temporary home, and she and her husband
were on the outer fringe of society. She had heard that the
Cowperwoods were people of wealth, that they were friendly with the
Addisons, and that they were going to build a
two-hundred-thousand-dollar mansion. (The value of houses always grows
in the telling.) That was enough. She had called, being three doors
away, to leave her card; and Aileen, willing to curry favor here and
there, had responded. Mrs. Huddlestone was a little woman, not very
attractive in appearance, clever in a social way, and eminently
practical.

"Speaking of Mrs. Merrill," commented Mrs. Huddlestone, on this
particular day, "there she is--near the dress-goods counter. She
always carries that lorgnette in just that way."

Aileen turned and examined critically a tall, dark, slender woman of
the high world of the West, very remote, disdainful, superior.

"You don't know her?" questioned Aileen, curiously, surveying her at
leisure.

"No," replied Mrs. Huddlestone, defensively. "They live on the North
Side, and the different sets don't mingle so much."

As a matter of fact, it was just the glory of the principal families
that they were above this arbitrary division of "sides," and could pick
their associates from all three divisions.

"Oh!" observed Aileen, nonchalantly. She was secretly irritated to
think that Mrs. Huddlestone should find it necessary to point out Mrs.
Merrill to her as a superior person.

"You know, she darkens her eyebrows a little, I think," suggested Mrs.
Huddlestone, studying her enviously. "Her husband, they say, isn't the
most faithful person in the world. There's another woman, a Mrs.
Gladdens, that lives very close to them that he's very much interested
in."

"Oh!" said Aileen, cautiously. After her own Philadelphia experience
she had decided to be on her guard and not indulge in too much gossip.
Arrows of this particular kind could so readily fly in her direction.

"But her set is really much the smartest," complimented Aileen's
companion.

Thereafter it was Aileen's ambition to associate with Mrs. Anson
Merrill, to be fully and freely accepted by her. She did not know,
although she might have feared, that that ambition was never to be
realized.

But there were others who had called at the first Cowperwood home, or
with whom the Cowperwoods managed to form an acquaintance. There were
the Sunderland Sledds, Mr. Sledd bein