that she could so convince
herself, for her intuitions were too sure to admit of her going far
astray in her conclusions.

She detected the note of uneasiness in Mrs. Percy Parrott's hysterical
mirth when they met in public, although she was entirely herself if no
one was about. The Percy Parrotts, with nearly $400 in the bank to their
credit, were climbing rapidly, and Mrs. Parrott lost no opportunity to
explain how dreadfully shocked mamma was when she learned that her only
daughter was doing her own work--Mrs. Parrott being still in ignorance
of the fact that local sleuths had learned to a certainty that Mrs.
Parrott formerly had lived on a street where the male residents left
with their dinner pails when the whistle blew in the morning.

Essie Tisdale saw Mrs. Alva Jackson's furtive glances toward the Symes's
home when they met for a moment on the street and she interpreted
correctly the trend of events when Mrs. Abe Tutts ceased to invite her
to "run in and set a spell."

Pearline and Planchette Starr no longer laid their arms about her
shoulders and there was constraint in the voices of the younger sisters,
Lucille and Camille when they sang out "Hullo" on their way to school.

The only persons in whom Essie could detect no change were "Hank" and
Mrs. Terriberry, the latter herself clinging desperately to the fringe
of Crowheart's social life, determined that no ordinary jar should shake
her loose.

Van Lennop himself saw, since Essie had made the situation clear to him,
the patronizing manner of her erstwhile friends, the small
discourtesies, the petty slights, and he found springing up within him a
feeling of partisanship so vigorous as frequently to surprise himself.
Were they really so ignorant, so blind, he asked himself, as to be
unable to see that the girl, regardless of her occupation or
antecedents, had a distinction of mind and manner which they could never
hope to achieve? Of her parentage he knew nothing, for she seldom talked
of herself, but he felt there was breeding somewhere to account for her
clean, bright mind, the shapeliness of her hands, the slender feet and
ankles and that rare carriage of her head. Immigrant stock, he assured
himself, did not produce small pink ears, short upper lips, and a grace
as natural as an antelope's.

But it was a small thing in itself--it is nearly always small things
which precipitate great ones--that at last stirred Van Lennop to his
depth.

They were rid