genuine
affection for them. A child addressed the best side of her nature, and
evoked a passion that had never found rest in satisfaction, while her
heartiness and womanly beauty appealed to the boy nature with charms to
which it yielded unbounded admiration and implicit confidence.

The reception was a wonderful success. Leaving out of the account the
numbers of gentlemen who came to see the revived glories of the Palgrave
mansion, there was a large number of men who had been summoned by Mrs.
Dillingham's cards--men who undoubtedly ought to have been in
better business or in better company. They were men in good
positions--clergymen, merchants, lawyers, physicians, young men of good
families--men whose wives and mothers and sisters entertained an
uncharitable opinion of that lady; but for this one courtesy of a year
the men would not be called to account. Mrs. Dillingham knew them all at
sight, called each man promptly by name, and presented them all to her
dear friend Mrs. Belcher, and then to Col. Belcher, who, dividing his
attention between the drawing-room and the dining-room, played the host
with rude heartiness and large hospitality.

Mrs. Belcher was surprised by the presence of a number of men whose
names were familiar with the public--Members of Congress,
representatives of the city government, clergymen even, who were
generally supposed to be "at home" on that day. Why had these made their
appearance? She could only come to one conclusion, which was, that they
regarded Mrs. Dillingham as a show. Mrs. Dillingham in a beautiful
house, arranged for self-exhibition, was certainly more attractive than
Mary, Queen of Scots, in wax, in a public hall; and she could be seen
for nothing.

It is doubtful whether Mrs. Belcher's estimate of their sex was
materially raised by their tribute to her companion's personal
attractions, but they furnished her with an interesting study. She was
comforted by certain observations, viz., that there were at least twenty
men among them who, by their manner and their little speeches, which
only a woman could interpret, showed that they were entangled in the
same meshes that had been woven around her husband; that they were as
foolish, as fond, as much deceived, and as treacherously entertained as
he.

She certainly was amused. Puffy old fellows with nosegays in their
button-holes grew gallant and young in Mrs. Dillingham's presence,
filled her ears with flatteries, received the gra