feel as if I had changed my religion half a dozen times in a
fortnight. But I haven't heard anything about it for a week. We have
taken up the Hindoo widows now, you know." And the girl laughed, as if
she knew she were talking nonsense.

"And you do not read much in the city?" Margaret asked, with an answering
smile.

"Yes; in the summer. That is, some do. There is a reading set. I don't
know that they read much, but there is a reading set. You know, Miss
Debree, that when a book is published--really published, as Mr. Henderson
says--you don't need to read it. Somehow it gets into the air and becomes
common property. Everybody hears the whole thing. You can talk about it
from a notice. Of course there are some novels that one must read in
order to understand human nature. Do you read French?"

"Yes; but not many French novels; I cannot."

"Nor can I," said Carmen, with a sincere face. "They are too realistic
for me." She was at the moment running over in her mind a "situation" in
a paper-covered novel turned down on her nightstand. "Mr. Henderson says
that everybody condemns the French novels, and that people praise the
novels they don't read."

"You know Mr. Henderson very well?"

"Yes; we've known him a long time. He is the only man I'm afraid of."

"Afraid of?"

"Well, you know he is a sort of Club man; that style of man provokes your
curiosity, for you never can tell how much such men know. It makes you a
little uneasy."

Carmen was looking into the fire, as if abstractedly reflecting upon the
nature of men in general, but she did not fail to notice a slight
expression of pain on Margaret's face.

"But there is your Mr. Lyon--"

Margaret laughed. "You do me too much honor. I think you discovered him
first."

"Well, our Mr. Lyon." Carmen was still looking into the fire. "He is such
a good young man!"

Margaret did not exactly fancy this sort of commendation, and she
replied, with somewhat the tone of defending him, "We all have the
highest regard for Mr. Lyon."

"Yes, and he is quite gone on Brandon, I assure you. He intends to do a
great deal of good in the world. I think he spends half his time in New
York studying, he calls it, our charitable institutions. Mamma reproaches
me that I don't take more interest in philanthropy. That is her worldly
side. Everybody has a worldly side. I'm as worldly as I can be"--this
with a look of innocence that denied the self-accusation--"but I haven't
any call t