a very good New York
family,--he had known her father who had been something of a figure in
finance until the crash of ninety-three,--and the head of Herndon Hall
was reputed to have an excellent "formative" influence upon her girls.
And certainly that raw little specimen who had presented herself in his
office needed all the "formative influence" she could get!

"We must give her the best," he pronounced easily, "for she is likely to
be a rich woman some day."

It may be seen that President West agreed with Mrs. Gardiner's practical
interpretation of the catechism. After his interview with Adelle he said
to the trust officer,--"She needs--everything! Herndon Hall will be the
very thing for her--will teach her what a girl in her position ought to
know."

These remarks reveal on his part a special philosophy that will become
clearer as we get to know better Miss Annette Thompson and Herndon Hall.
The officers of the trust company felt that in sending their ward to
this fashionable girls' school, they were doing their duty by her not
only safely but handsomely, and thenceforth dismissed her from their
thoughts, except when a subordinate brought them at regular intervals a
voucher to sign before issuing a check on behalf of Adelle....

"Terribly crude little piece," the president of the trust company said
of Adelle, thinking of his own vivacious daughters, who at her age had
been complete little women of the world, and of all the other pretty,
confident, voluble girls he met in his social life. "She has seen
nothing of life," he said in extenuation, by which he meant naturally
that Adelle Clark had never known how "nice people live," had never been
to dancing-school or parties, or country clubs or smart dressmakers, and
all the rest of what to him constituted a "suitable education" for a
young girl who was to inherit money.

* * * * *

Meanwhile the "crude little piece" returned to her old home, somewhat
shaken in mind by what had happened to her. It never entered her little
head to argue with the august officers of the trust company, who stood
to her as the sacred symbol of Authority. She must buy a trunk, pack it,
and be at the Eclair Hotel in B---- by noon on the following Friday.
Those were her orders. She looked wonderingly at the two hundred dollar
check which Mr. Gardiner had given her for the expense of making herself
ready. She had never before seen two hundred dollars. She kne