r first quarterly allowance should be
spent upon herself or her friends.

On the surface it would appear that unselfishness was the key to her
character. That was impossible; she had lived too long alone. Yet
Geraldine was clearly not acquisitive; though, when she did buy, her
careless extravagance worried Kathleen. Spendthrift--in that she cared
nothing for the money value of anything--her bright, piquant, eager face
was a welcome sight to the thrifty metropolitan shopkeeper at
Christmas-tide. A delicate madness for giving obsessed her; she bought a
pair of guns for Scott, laces and silks for Kathleen, and for the
servants everything she could think of. Nobody was forgotten, not even
Mr. Tappan, who awoke Christmas morning to gaze grimly upon an antique
jewelled fob all dangling with pencils and seals. In the first flush of
independence it gave her more pleasure to give than to acquire.

Also, for the first time in her life, she superintended the distribution
of her own charities, flying in the motor with Kathleen from church to
mission, eager, curious, pitiful, appalled, by turns. Sentiment
overwhelmed her; it was a new kind of pleasure.

* * * * *

One night she arose shivering from her warm bed, and with ink and paper
sat figuring till nearly dawn how best to distribute what fortune she
might one day possess, and live an exalted life on ten dollars a week.

Kathleen found her there asleep, head buried in the scattered papers,
limbs icy to the knees; and there ensued an interim of bronchitis which
threatened at one time to postpone her debut.

But the medical profession of Manhattan came to the rescue in
battalions, and Geraldine was soon afoot, once more drifting
ecstatically among the splendours of the shops, thrilling with the
nearness of the day that should set her free among unnumbered hosts of
unknown friends.

Who would these unknown people turn out to be? What hearts were at that
very moment destined to respond in friendship to her own?

Often lying awake, nibbling her scented lump of sugar, the darkness
reddening, at intervals, as embers of her bedroom fire dropped glowing
to the hearth, she pictured to herself this vast, brilliant throng
awaiting to welcome her as one of them. And her imagination catching
fire, through closed lids she seemed to see heavenly vistas of youthful
faces--a thousand arms outstretched in welcome; and she, advancing, eyes
dim with happiness,