was it anything more than pleasure? What afair creature! thought her hostess; and yet, fair as she is, whatpossible chance for her in a good family? A young man may be taken withbeauty, but not his relations; and they would object to a girl who isnobody and has nothing. Well, there is a chance for her, and she shallhave the chance.
"Lois, what will you wear to this luncheon party?"
"You know all my dresses, Mrs. Wishart. I suppose my black silk wouldbe right."
"No, it would not be right at all. You are too young to wear black silkto a luncheon party. And your white dress is not the thing either."
"I have nothing else that would do. You must let me be old, in a blacksilk."
"I will not let you be anything of the kind. I will get you a dress."
"No, Mrs. Wishart; I cannot pay for it."
"I will pay for it."
"I cannot let you do that. You have done enough for me already. Mrs.Wishart, it is no matter. People will just think I cannot affordanything better, and that is the very truth."
"No, Lois; they will think you do not know any better."
"That is the truth too," said Lois, laughing.
"No it isn't; and if it is, I do not choose they should think so. Ishall dress you for this once, my dear; and I shall not ruin myselfeither."
Mrs. Wishart had her way; and so it came to pass that Lois went to theluncheon party in a dress of bright green silk; and how lovely shelooked in it is impossible to describe. The colour, which would havebeen ruinous to another person, simply set off her delicate complexionand bright brown hair in the most charming manner; while at the sametime the green was not so brilliant as to make an obvious patch ofcolour wherever its wearer might be. Mrs. Wishart was a great enemy ofstartling effects, in any kind; and the hue was deep and rich anddecided, without being flashy.
"You never looked so well in anything," was Mrs. Wishart's comment. "Ihave hit just the right thing. My dear, I would put one of those whitecamellias in your hair – that will relieve the eye."
"From what?" Lois asked, laughing.
"Never mind; you do as I tell you."
CHAPTER III
A LUNCHEON PARTY
Luncheon parties were not then precisely what they are now; nevertheless the entertainment was extremely handsome. Lois and herfriend had first a long drive from their home in the country to a housein one of the older parts of the city. Old the house also was; but itwas after a roomy and luxurious fashion, if somewhat antiquated; andthe air of ancient respectability, even of ancient distinction, wasstamped upon it, as upon the family that inhabited it. Mrs. Wishart andLois were received with warm cordiality by Miss Caruthers; but theformer did not fail to observe a shadow that crossed Mrs. Caruthers'face when Lois was presented to her. Lois did not see it, and would nothave known how to interpret it if she had seen it. She is safe, thoughtMrs. Wishart, as she noticed the calm unembarrassed air with which Loissat down to talk with the younger of her hostesses.
"You are making a long stay with Mrs. Wishart," was the unpromisingopening remark.
"Mrs. Wishart keeps me."
"Do you often come to visit her?"
"I was never here before."
"Then this is your first acquain'tance with New York?"
"Yes."
"How does it strike you? One loves to get at new impressions of whatone has known all one's life. Nothing strikes us here, I suppose. Dotell me what strikes you."
"I might say, everything."
"How delightful! Nothing strikes me. I have seen it all five hundredtimes. Nothing is new."
"But people are new," said Lois. "I mean they are different from oneanother. There is continual variety there."
"To me there seems continual sameness!" said the other, with a halfshutting up of her eyes, as of one dazed with monotony. "They are allalike. I know beforehand exactly what every one will say to me, and howevery one will behave."
"That is not how it is at home," returned Lois. "It is different there."
"People are not all alike?"
"No indeed. Perfectly unlike, and individual."
"How agreeable! So that is one of the things that strike you here? thecontrast?"
"No," said Lois, laughing; "I find here the same variety that I findat home. People are not alike to me."
"But different, I suppose, from the varieties you are accustomed to athome?"
Lois admitted that.
"Well, now tell me how. I have never travelled in New England; I havetravelled everywhere else. Tell me, won't you, how those whom you seehere differ from the people you see at home."
"In the same sort of way that a sea-gull differs from a land sparrow,"
Lois answered demurely.
"I don't understand. Are we like the sparrows, or like the gulls?"
"I do not know that. I mean merely that the different sorts are fittedto different spheres and ways of life."
Miss Caruthers looked a little curiously at the girl. "I know this sphere," she said. "I want you to tell me yours."
"It is free space instead of narrow streets, and clear air instead ofsmoke. And the people all have something to do, and are doing it."
"And you think we are doing nothing?" asked Miss Caruthers, laughing.
"Perhaps I am mistaken. It seems to me so."
"O, you are mistaken. We work hard. And yet, since I went to school, Inever had anything that I must do, in my life."
"That can be only because you did not know what it was."
"I had nothing that I must do."
"But nobody is put in this world without some thing to do," said Lois."Do you think a good watchmaker would carefully make and finish a verycostly pin or wheel, and put it in the works of his watch to donothing?"
Miss Caruthers stared now at the girl. Had this soft, innocent-lookingmaiden absolutely dared to read a lesson to her? – "You are religious!"she remarked dryly.
Lois neither affirmed nor denied it. Her eye roved over the gatheringthrong; the rustle of silks, the shimmer of lustrous satin, the fallsof lace, the drapery of one or two magnificent camels'-hair shawls, thecarefully dressed heads, the carefully gloved hands; for the ladies didnot keep on their bonnets then; and the soft murmur of voices, which, however, did not remain soft. It waxed and grew, rising and falling, until the room was filled with a breaking sea of sound. Miss Caruthershad been called off to attend to other guests, and then came to conductLois herself to the dining-room.
The party was large, the table was long; and it was a mass of glitterand glisten with plate and glass. A superb old-fashioned épergne in themiddle, great dishes of flowers sending their
