normal intercourse. If you can
manage Clarke, I will do the rest."

Kate tried hard to "manage Clarke," and was succeeding rather
adroitly. Whenever he seemed about to enter upon a discourse she
interrupted him, met his ponderous phrases with flippancies, plied him
with food (for which he had a singular weakness), and in many other
womanly ways discouraged and, in the end, intimidated him. He was at a
distinct disadvantage and knew it, and the knowledge irritated him.
However, with all his eccentricities he was a man of considerable
social experience, and, while he was not at any time joyous of
countenance, he did not in open guise offend, though he sank at last
into a glowering silence, leaving the talk to Weissmann.

Morton gave much attention to Mrs. Lambert, securing from her, almost
before she realized it, a promise to join a theatre-party, and
thereupon turned to Viola to say, "I hope you will consent."

"Consent?" she cried, with shining eyes. "I should like it above
everything. You see I've never really _lived_ in a big city, and it's
all so new and splendid to me."

Morton responded lightly. "I wish I could see it with your eyes. I
suppose New York is a wonderful city, and I'm sure all this chaos is
making towards something unparalleled in beauty, but just now I take
the point of view of a native who has been driven out of the good old
down-town streets by vulgar trade. The Servisses lived for forty years
at the corner of Corlear Square, but four years ago a big apartment
hotel rose next door, shutting off our light, and we had to move.
Hence our acrimony. The city grows more and more a show-place, wherein
the prodigal American may buy the pleasure he thinks commensurate.
Most of us who were born here have quite lost our hold on the earth;
for instance, here we are, Kate and I, treed in a ten-story hotel on
ground from which we used to gather huckleberries, and therein lies
the history of many another New York family."

Viola looked round the spacious and handsome dining-room. "I think
this way of living is beautiful. I want mamma to take an apartment
over here on the Park. I love the Park, although it makes me homesick
for the West sometimes."

"If you do decide to take an apartment, consult Kate. What she doesn't
know of New York isn't lady-like for any one to know. Frankly, Mrs.
Lambert, I should be very glad to see you get away from Pratt's house.
He is, I fear, a selfish, brutal business-man--an ego