"Everybody would be shocked to see how really gay Electa is. There are
very religious people in Hartford, too, who begin on Saturday night. But
the men insist upon parties and dinners, and they bring their fashions
up from New York. Boston is just as gay in some places, and Jane Morse
has had a splendid time this winter going to dances. The gentlemen who
come to Mr. King's are so polite, some of them elegant. I envy 'Lecty.
It's just the kind of world to live in."

"And I want to hear about your pink silk."

"I left it at 'Lecty's. It was too gay to bring home. It would have
frightened everybody. And 'Lecty thinks of going to New York next
winter, and if she does she will send for me. I should have had to
rumple it all up bringing it home, and I don't believe I'd had a chance
to wear it. I have the other two, and Mat thought the blue and white one
very pretty. Mat laughs at what he calls Puritanism, and says the world
is growing broader and more generous. He is a splendid man too, and
though he is making a good deal of money he doesn't think all the time
of saving, as Mary and her husband do. He is good to the poor, and
generous and kind, and wants everyone to be happy. Of course they go to
church, but there is a curious difference. I sometimes wonder who is
right and if it _is_ a sin to be happy."

Doris' mind had no especial theological bent, and her conscience had not
been trained to keep on the alert.

"It was very nice in him to give it to you. And you must have looked
lovely in it."

"Oh, the frock," Betty laughed. "Yes, I did. And when you know you look
nice you stop feeling anxious about it. It was just so at Jane's party.
But I should have been mortified in my gray woolen gown. Well--the
mortification may be good, but it isn't pleasant. I wore the pink silk
to the weddings and to some dinners. Dinners are quite grand things
there, but they last so long I should call them suppers. And sometimes
there is a grand march afterward, which is a kind of stately dancing. It
has been just delightful. I don't know how I will settle down and wash
and iron and scrub. But I would a great deal rather be in 'Lecty's place
than in Mary's, and saving up money to buy farms isn't everything to
life. I think the Mannings worship their farms and stock a good deal
more than 'Lecty and Mat do their fine house and their money and all."

Her admirers and her conquests she confided to Janie Morse. There was
one very charming young