very quick to find out she was there, and in visiting
the huge dressmaking and dry goods establishments which she patronized. I
found it quite difficult, at times, to reconcile the fact that those we
met by day were, in the main, created in the same mental likeness as
those I listened to with such admiration in the evening. I used to close
my eyes at times and fancy the old heathen, mythology to be true, and
that the gods were actually revisiting the earth, and bringing with them
the high conceptions from Olympus, I was able more clearly than ever to
recognize how high were Mr. Winthrop's ideals, so far as this world goes,
of human excellence and, with deepest humiliation, remembered how far I
must have come short of his lowest standards. I went to Mrs. Flaxman with
this new and painful discovery, and as usual, she brought her
consolation.

"Very few can hope to attain such excellence of culture and intellect as
these men possess. You and I ought to be grateful to our Creator if he
has given us brain power sufficient to appreciate and comprehend their
words. I know it has given Mr. Winthrop deep satisfaction to see you so
interested in their conversation."

"How do you know that?" I asked, pleased at her words.

"I look at him sometimes while you get so absorbed listening that you
seem to forget everything; and I see the gratified expression of his
face while he watches you. I know it would be a disappointment to him if
you should develop into a fashionable, feather-headed woman."

"Or a widow-helping philanthropist," I said, laughing.

"Of the two, he would prefer the latter."

"But neither would be his ideal."

"I am not altogether certain of that; but I do know he holds in strong
dislike a woman who simply exists to follow the fashions, no matter how
attractive she may be."

"I am ashamed to say I like getting new things, especially when they are
becoming," I said, a little shamefacedly.

"I am sure you would get tired of a perpetual round of new hats and
frocks, and trying them on, I am not apt to be mistaken in a person."

"But it is vastly easier to think of harmonious colors and combinations
of dry goods, than it is to puzzle over those knotty subjects we listen
to here in the evening, or to translate Chopin or Wagner, or the other
great masters."

"But once mastering any of these, the pleasure arising therefrom gives
satisfaction to a noble cast of mind that a whole gallery of Worth's
choicest cost