hough
they were clever canaries. The girls told their father that they "feared
her principles leaned toward infidelity, and that it was never safe to be
intimate with these original women," and had gone home the next day, not
waiting for the judge. They washed their hands of her, and gloved them
again, but he still felt responsible for her. After he left the captain he
went to her, fatherly interest radiant in every feature: "Mr. Waring is
right, Jane. It is high time that you were taking your part in society.
Your father wishes it."

"I will do whatever he wishes," quietly.--"You did not know us when we
lived in the old house in Southwark, Mr. Waring. We invented our patents
then. Sometimes we could afford to go to the gallery at the theatre when
the play was good. Father and the newsboys would lead the clapping. And we
went once a year in our patched shoes a-fishing for a holiday. Those were
good times."

"Perfect child of Nature!" telegraphed Mr. Waring uneasily to the judge.
"How Mrs. Wilde will rejoice in you, Miss Swendon! Nature is her specialty.
She is coming to call this morning.--Miss Swendon," turning anxiously to
the judge, "can have no better sponsor in society than Mrs. Wilde. She only
can give the accolade to all aspirants. No amount of money will force an
entrance at her doors. There must be blood--blood. 'Swendon?' she said when
I spoke to her about this call. 'The Swedish Svens? I remember. Queen
Christina's gallant lieutenant was her great-grandfather. Good stock. None
better. The girl must belong to our circle.' So, now it is all settled!"
rubbing his hands and smiling.

"Jane is careless," said the captain eagerly. "People of the best fashion
have called, and she has not even left cards. Her dress too--Now a Paris
gown, fringes and--"

The three men looked at her at that with a sudden imbecile despair, at
which she laughed and went out.

The captain found her presently down by the boat in which she had heard
Neckart's story. She bailed it out and cleaned it carefully every day, but
she had never gone on the river in it since that night.

"Father," stepping ashore, "what have I done that I must be turned into
another woman?"

"Now, Jenny, making models and crabbing were well enough for you as a
child. But, as Waring justly observes, the society to which you belong is
inexorable in its rules for a woman."

She flung out her arms impatiently, and then clasped them above her head.
It seemed as