came to him what it was:
the face of a bird of prey--of the great wild, lonely eagle! You have
seen it, perhaps, in a menagerie; sitting high up, submitting
patiently, biding its time. But all the while the soul of the eagle is
far away, ranging the wide spaces, ready for the lightning swoop, and
the clutch with the cruel talons!

CHAPTER X

The next week was a busy one for the Montagues. The Robbie Wallings had
come to town and opened their house, and the time drew near for the
wonderful debutante dance at which Alice was to be formally presented
to Society. And of course Alice must have a new dress for the occasion,
and it must be absolutely the most beautiful dress ever known. In an
idle moment her cousin figured out that it was to cost her about five
dollars a minute to be entertained by the Wallings!

What it would cost the Wallings, one scarcely dared to think. Their
ballroom would be turned into a flower-garden; and there would be a
supper for a hundred guests, and still another supper after the dance,
and costly favours for every figure. The purchasing of these latter had
been entrusted to Oliver, and Montague heard with dismay what they were
to cost. "Robbie couldn't afford to do anything second-rate," was the
younger brother's only reply to his exclamations.

Alice divided her time between the Wallings and her costumiers, and
every evening she came home with a new tale of important developments.
Alice was new at the game, and could afford to be excited; and Mrs.
Robbie liked to see her bright face, and to smile indulgently at her
eager inquiries. Mrs. Robbie herself had given her orders to her
steward and her florist and her secretary, and went on her way and
thought no more about it. That was the way of the great ladies--or, at
any rate, it was their pose.

The town-house of the Robbies was a stately palace occupying a block
upon Fifth Avenue--one of the half-dozen mansions of the Walling family
which were among the show places of the city. It would take a catalogue
to list the establishments maintained by the Wallings--there was an
estate in North Carolina, and another in the Adirondacks, and others on
Long Island and in New Jersey. Also there were several in Newport--one
which was almost never occupied, and which Mrs. Billy Alden
sarcastically described as "a three-million-dollar castle on a desert."

Montague accompanied Alice once or twice, and had an opportunity to
study Mrs. Robbie at hom