kiss Katy sent
Helen away, while Mrs. Cameron, after twisting her rings nervously for
a moment, said to Katy:

"Perhaps your sister would do well to wear your furs. Hers are small and
common fitch."

"Yes, certainly. Take them to her," Katy answered, knowing intuitively
the feeling which had prompted this suggestion from her mother-in-law,
who hastened to Helen's room with the rich sable she was to wear in
place of the old fitch.

Helen appreciated the difference at once between her furs and Katy's,
and felt a pang of mortification as she saw how old and poor and dowdy
hers were beside the others. But they were her own; the best she could
afford. She would not begin by borrowing, and so she declined the offer,
and greatly to Mrs. Cameron's horror went down to Mrs. Banker clad in
the despised furs, which Mrs. Cameron would on no account have had
beside her on Broadway in an open carriage. Mrs. Banker noticed them,
too, but the eager, happy face, which grew each moment brighter as they
drove down the street, more than made amends; and in watching that and
pointing out the places which they passed, Mrs. Banker forgot the furs
and the coarse straw hat whose strings of black had undeniably been
dyed. Never in her life had Helen enjoyed a ride as she did that
pleasant winter day, when her kind friend took her wherever she wished
to go, showing her Broadway in its glory from Union Square to Wall
Street, where they encountered Mark in a bustling crowd. He saw them,
too, and beckoned to them, while Helen's face grew red as, lifting his
hat to her, he came up to the carriage, and at his mother's suggestion
took a seat just opposite, asking where they had been and jocosely
laughing at his mother's taste in selecting such localities as the
Bowery, the Tombs and Barnum's Museum, when there were so many finer
places to be seen.

Helen felt the hot blood pricking the roots of her hair, for the Bowery,
the Tombs and Barnum's Museum had been her choice as the points of which
she had heard the most. So when Mark continued:

"You shall ride with me, Miss Lennox, and I will show you something
worth your seeing," she frankly answered:

"Your mother is not in fault, Mr. Ray. She asked me where I wished to
go, and I mentioned these places; so please attribute it wholly to my
country breeding, and not to your mother's lack of taste."

There was something in the frank speech which won Mrs. Banker's heart,
while she felt an increased r