Her daughters pressed forward to bestow caresses as affectionate upon "dear Imogen," the family having recently returned from abroad. Their mother allowed them no time for inquiries or condolence.

I am very, very glad to see you looking so well and bright!" she pursued, in a breezy, cheerful tone, neither shrill nor loud, but one that could make itself heard whenever and by whomsoever she willed. "I didn't mean that my first call should be one of business, but I suppose you wouldn't admit me upon any other plea, in business hours. But there's the great Huntley wedding, week after next, you know, and the girls haven't enough finery to warrant their appearance there - just from Paris, too! So we have come to cast ourselves upon your generosity and beg you, for the sake of old times and present friendship, to make us presentable. Unless you are too severely taxed already by the importunate friends of whom I see so many present. How is the dear father to-day? You must let me see him and mamma before I leave - and Emma and the babies! You mustn't exclude us from the other parts of the house because you have taken to practicalities in sober, serious earnest. We would rebel outright, and en masse - after having been welcomed, during so many years, to the pleasantest home in the city!"

Imogen had led the way into the other parlor while the lady talked, and was now undoing the wrappings of the three silk dresses, and opening boxes of rare, fine lace on the long table. Her back was to the groups of attentive listeners to the foregoing monologue, and the keen eyes beside her saw her fingers shake, the long, brown lashes fall quickly to hide the unshed tears.

"You are very good!' said a gentle, grateful voice. "But I felt sure you would be!"

"My love!" A strong and not small hand - ungloved - a superb diamond solitaire, in itself a fortune, flashing on it as the guard to a worn wedding-ring - covered the chill, uncertain fingers, busy with paper and twine. Imogen felt the warmth and thrill of the pressure to her very heart. "If you ever dare to say another word like that, I'll never forgive you ! Trimmings, style, everything - we leave to you, Imogen, my dear!" she continued, aloud. If you can make my girls half as distingue as you are yourself in full dress, or home-dress either, for that matter, I shall be satisfied. I always told you you were a genius in your pro fession - creative, not merely imitative genius. It was a shame that you did not give others the benefit of it before now. It is refreshing to one who has cultivated any taste for the aesthetic, to look about your rooms. I have lively hopes that dress may be understood and studied as one of the fine arts among us in time. You will be known in this generation and region, at least, as a benefactress. We go into another room to be measured, did you say?"

She swept her daughters before her into the fitting-room, and a buzz and rustle succeeded the silence her entrance had caused.

In Blanche's hearing no one could comment openly upon what had passed. But there were significant whispers and wondering looks, and by the time the gossips reached the street, much and prolonged discussion with regard to this episode in the history of " opening day."

For the eccentric old lady who could afford to defy the dictate of society, and exercised her right, was Mrs. Horatio Harding:, whose own veins were full of old, rich Dutch blood, and whose husband was a merchant prince, and Mr. Harding Walford was her nephew-in-law. If she had set her mind upon making the Hiller girls the fashion, she had carried her point triumphantly. With a sort of insolent grace, perhaps, at which people grumbled while they obeyed her, but she had had her way, as usual. Mrs. Horatio Harding had "opinions," and it was not always safe or pleasant to oppose her.

"You may not know that you have done us a great service - one for which we can never pay you aright,"said Imogen to her at the close of "the season's " work "But you have! That we have succeeded beyond our most sanguine expectations is due, in a large measure, to the foothold you gave us that first day. If other women who have as much influence would use it to free, not enslave, their sex; to overcome, instead of strengthening the prejudices that bear so hardly upon us already, what a change would be wrought in homes where the few strive and toil, and the many are served!"

The strong white hand with the glittering solitaire, was raised threateningly.

"What did I tell you ? I will not be praised for doing a simple act of justice, especially when my heart, as well as my conscience, moved me to it. And you, my sweet child, may not know that you have had a narrow escape from marrying a man who has proved himself no more worthy to mate with you than am I with one of the holy men of old - those of whom the world was not worthy. But you have. That is all I shall ever say on the subject. But I think the more for my reserve when with you. And Harding Walford knows that I do. I am not reticent in his hearing. Don't attempt to defend him! He has lost you, and that ought to be punishment enough for one who is capable of appreciating you. Not that he ever was."

"I don't want him to be punished, dear Mrs. Harding," replied Imogen, gently. "He only swam with the tide."

"Precisely! and to deserve such a wife as you would make, a man ought to be strong of soul and right of purpose. Don't talk to me about moral cowards! I think 1 was born hating them?"