he guest-rooms, and I forgot the theatre in the
attic. I don't see but you have scrimped to the last degree."

"And yet there is room to move about," Margaret acknowledged, with a
gratified smile, as they wandered around. "Dear me, I used to think the
Stotts' house was a palace."

It was the height of the season before Lent. There had been one delay and
another, but at last all the workmen had been expelled, and Margaret was
mistress of her house. Cards for the house-warming had been out for two
weeks, and the event was near. She was in her own apartments this pale,
wintry afternoon, putting the finishing touches to her toilet. Nothing
seemed to suit. The maid found her in a very bad humor. "Remember," she
had said to her husband, when he ordered his brougham after breakfast,
"sharp seven, we are to dine alone the first time." It lacked two hours
yet of dinner-time, but she was dressing for want of other occupation.

Was this then the summit of her ambition? She had indeed looked forward
to some such moment as this as one of exultation in the satisfaction of
all her wishes. She took up a book of apothegms that lay on the table,
and opened by chance to this, "Unhappy are they whose desires are all
ratified." It was like a sting. Why should she think at this moment of
her girlhood; of the ideals indulged in during that quiet time; of her
aunt's cheerful, tender, lonely life; of her rejection of Mr. Lyon? She
did not love Mr. Lyon; she was not satisfied then. How narrow that little
life in Brandon had been! She threw the book from her. She hated all that
restraint and censoriousness. If her aunt could see her in all this
splendor, she would probably be sadder than ever. What right had she to
sit there and mourn--as she knew her aunt did--and sigh over her career?
What right had they to sit in judgment on her?

She went out from her room, down the great stairway, into the spacious
house, pausing in the great hall to see opening vista after vista in the
magnificent apartments. It was the first time that she had alone really
taken the full meaning of it--had possessed it with the eye. It was hers.
Wherever she went, all hers. No, she had desires yet. It should be filled
with life--it should be the most brilliant house in the world. Society
should see, should acknowledge the leadership. Yes--as she glanced at
herself in a drawing-room mirror--they should see that Henderson's wife
was capable of a success equal to his own, an