not flash, neither did she open
her lips to speak. The little remark of her sister-in-law, apparently
so harmless and sensible, was in fact a poisoned arrow. For Mildred
was twenty-three, had been "out" five years, and was not even in the
way to become engaged. She and everyone had assumed from her lovely
babyhood that she would marry splendidly, would marry wealth and social
position. How could it be otherwise? Had she not beauty? Had she not
family and position? Had she not style and cleverness? Yet--five
years out and not a "serious" proposal. An impudent poor fellow with
no prospects had asked her. An impudent rich man from fashionable New
York had hung after her--and had presently abandoned whatever dark
projects he may have been concealing and had married in his own set,
"as they always do, the miserable snobs," raved Mrs. Gower, who had
been building high upon those lavish outpourings of candy, flowers, and
automobile rides. Mildred, however, had accepted the defection more
philosophically. She had had enough vanity to like the attentions of
the rich and fashionable New Yorker, enough good sense to suspect,
perhaps not definitely, what those attentions meant, but certainly what
they did not mean. Also, in the back of her head had been an intention
to refuse Stanley Baird, if by chance he should ask her. Was there any
substance to this intention, sprung from her disliking the conceited,
self-assured snob as much as she liked his wealth and station? Perhaps
not. Who can say? At any rate, may we not claim credit for our good
intentions--so long as, even through lack of opportunity, we have not
stultified them?

With every natural advantage apparently, Mildred's failure to catch a
husband seemed to be somehow her own fault. Other girls, less endowed
than she, were marrying, were marrying fairly well. Why, then, was
Mildred lagging in the market?

There may have been other reasons, reasons of accident--for, in the
higher class matrimonial market, few are called and fewer chosen. There
was one reason not accidental; Hanging Rock was no place for a girl so
superior as was Mildred Gower to find a fitting husband. As has been
hinted, Hanging Rock was one of those upper-middle-class colonies where
splurge and social ambition dominate the community life. In such
colonies the young men are of two classes--those beneath such a girl as
Mildred, and those who had the looks, the manners, the intelligence,