that to Mrs. Nailor? She
apparently has not that confidence in my word that I could have expected
in one so truthful as herself."

Mrs. Lancaster laughed.

"Ferdy--" she began, and then paused irresolute. "However--"

"Well, what is it? Say it."

"You ought not to go there so often as you do."

"Why?" His eyes were full of insolence.

"Good-by. Drive home," she said to the coachman, in a tone intentionally
loud enough for her friend to hear.

Ferdy Wickersham strolled on down the street, and a few minutes later
was leaning in at the door of Mrs. Wentworth's carriage, talking very
earnestly to the lady inside.

Mr. Wickersham's attentions to Louise Wentworth had begun to be the talk
of the town. Young Mrs. Wentworth was not a person to allow herself to
be shelved. She did not propose that the older lady who bore that name
should be known by it. She declared she would play second fiddle to no
one. But she discovered that the old lady who lived in the old mansion
on Washington Square was "Mrs. Wentworth," and that Mrs. Wentworth
occupied a position from which she was not to be moved. After a little
she herself was known as "Mrs. Norman." It was the first time Mrs.
Norman had ever had command of much money. Her mother had made a good
appearance and dressed her daughter handsomely, but to carry out her
plans she had had to stint and scrape to make both ends meet. Mrs.
Caldwell told one of her friends that her rings knew the way to the
pawnbroker's so well that if she threw them in the street they would
roll into his shop.

This struggle Louise had witnessed with that easy indifference which was
part her nature and part her youth. She had been brought up to believe
she was a beauty, and she did believe it. Now that she had the chance,
she determined to make the most of her triumph. She would show people
that she knew how to spend money; embellishment was the aim of her life,
and she did show them. Her toilets were the richest; her equipage was
the handsomest and best appointed. Her entertainments soon were among
the most splendid in the city.

Those who were accustomed to wealth and to parade wondered both at Mrs.
Norman's tastes and at her gratification of them.

All the town applauded. They had had no idea that the Wentworths, as
rich as they knew them to be, had so much money.

"She must have Aladdin's lamp," they said. Only old Mrs. Wentworth
looked grave and disapproving at the extravagance of her
daught