she said that but to make conversation."

The following day when Debby Alden suggested that they make ready to go
to the seminary, Hester brought up again the question of remaining at
home. Debby listened patiently until the girl had expressed herself and
had presented every argument in favor of attending the seminary for
recitations merely. When Hester had finished, Debby Alden said quietly:
"Please put on your hat and gloves, Hester. We must take the next car if
I wish to be back home in time to get supper."

Hester felt that the decision was final and nothing could be gained by
argument. Leaving the room, she soon returned with hat and gloves. These
last articles she swung in her hands as they went down the walk.

"Hester, when at home we were a little lax about certain customs. Here
in Lockport and among strangers, we must be more careful. Put on your
gloves before we leave the house. My mother taught me that a lady must
finish her toilet before she leaves her home."

She waited until Hester had put on and buttoned the gloves. "It seems a
trifle," continued Debby, "but it is trifles which mark the difference
between a cultivated and an uncultivated woman."

When the street car took siding at Williams Street to give right of way
to the east-bound car, a carriage drew up close to the curb. The
coachman was in livery. Hester noticed that at once, for at her home no
distinction in dress was made between the man who drove and he who
employed him.

Servants in livery were not new to Debby Alden. Her attention was
attracted to the sweet-faced woman in the carriage. This woman who was
richly gowned was scarcely older than Debby herself; but her hair was
white. There was some quality in the face which attracted and held.
Perhaps it was the power of self-control. The power to smile sweetly
when the person had cause only for tears. This woman was bending from
the carriage in conversation with a man and woman on the sidewalk. As
the car moved, the nervous horses jerked suddenly. The woman in the
carriage turned her head and met Debby Alden's direct glance. Just for a
moment, these two women looked into each other's eyes. Then the car
moved on; the carriage bowled along. With each woman an impression of
the unusual lingered.

Debby really was troubled. The face of the strange woman was as the face
of a half-forgotten friend.

"That woman in the carriage made me think of someone," she said to
Hester. "But I cannot think