mong her chickens, and in
pretty little house-gowns when he had remained for supper; nevertheless,
in surrendering her slim waist she seemed to descend, significantly,
from her pedestal and become warm flesh and blood. He held her
awkwardly, barely touching her, wondering there should be physical
shrinking from such a beautiful creature, one, moreover, that had shown
him more kindness and disinterested friendship than any he had ever
known. He reproached himself, but even while he admired the luminous
whiteness of her skin he found himself scowling at the tiny black moles
that gave her an oddly artificial provocative look, as black patches may
have deliberately enhanced the charms of their coquettish grandmothers.

"Humph!" said Mrs. Wheaton, raising her lorgnette, as became a leader of
society. "He is not so fond of her, for all this friendship we have been
hearing so much about. Well, it is natural enough. Isabel is far too
independent to be really attractive to men, for all her good looks.
These advanced women will have to step aside into a class by themselves,
and as the men won't follow them, that will mean they will die off
naturally, and the world wag its own old way once more."

She was a tall stout woman, with a pale heavy face, and a curious
elevation of nose, as if sniffing an unpleasant odor; but which was
really meant to express pride of carriage. She wore a somewhat
old-fashioned but handsome gown of lavender satin trimmed with point
lace about the bodice, and a pair of diamond ear-rings. On one side of
her sat the elder Mrs. Colton, in black silk with a point-lace collar; a
sweet-faced frankly elderly woman. The third member of the group was a
woman who might have been any age between thirty-five and fifty, very
thin and dark, with the curiously virginal look peculiar to childless
women tainted by a suggestion of morbid sensuality, very difficult to
locate. Sometimes it seemed to twist across her thin restless mouth, at
others to gleam from her deep-set black eyes with a fleeting wildness.
Ordinarily she was smiling with an affected cynicism, and it was plain
to be seen that she respected her intellect. She was abominably dressed
in a frock of purple merino trimmed with black velvet ribbon; but she
wore a gold comb in her hair and a diamond brooch.

As the leader finished her remarks Mrs. Haight brought her teeth
together with a snap and shot through them a little hiss. Mrs. Wheaton
turned upon her with