rl of
the season, There were hints from different quarters that she might
possibly be an heiress. Vague stories were about of some contingency
which might possibly throw a fortune into her lap. The young men about
town talked of her at the clubs in their free-and-easy way, but all
agreed that she was the girl of the new crop,--"best filly this grass,"
as Livingston Jenkins put it. The general understanding seemed to be
that the young lawyer who had followed her to the city was going to
capture her. She seemed to favor him certainly as much as anybody. But
Myrtle saw many young men now, and it was not so easy as it would once
have been to make out who was an especial favorite.

There had been times when Murray Bradshaw would have offered his heart
and hand to Myrtle at once, if he had felt sure that she would accept
him. But he preferred playing the safe game now, and only wanted to feel
sure of her. He had done his best to be agreeable, and could hardly
doubt that he had made an impression. He dressed well when in the
city,--even elegantly,--he had many of the lesser social accomplishments,
was a good dancer, and compared favorably in all such matters with the
more dashing young fellows in society. He was a better talker than most
of them, and he knew more about the girl he was dealing with than they
could know. "You have only got to say the word, Murray," Mrs. Clymer
Ketchum said to her relative, "and you can have her. But don't be rash.
I believe you can get Berengaria if you try; and there 's something
better there than possibilities." Murray Bradshaw laughed, and told Mrs.
Clymer Ketchum not to worry about him; he knew what he was doing.

It so happened that Myrtle met Master Byles Gridley walking with Mr.
Gifted Hopkins the day before the party. She longed to have a talk with
her old friend, and was glad to have a chance of pleasing her poetical
admirer. She therefore begged her hostess to invite them both to her
party to please her, which she promised to do at once. Thus the two
elegant notes were accounted for.

Mrs. Clymer Ketchum, though her acquaintances were chiefly in the world
of fortune and of fashion, had yet a certain weakness for what she called
clever people. She therefore always variegated her parties with a streak
of young artists and writers, and a literary lady or two; and, if she
could lay hands on a first-class celebrity, was as happy as an Amazon who
had captured a Centaur.

"