_en route_ to the Berkshires or some farther point. A
few outsiders are sometimes asked to the more general of these
festivities, friends of city friends who have places hereabout, the
clergy and their wives, and, alas, the Doctor's daughter; but
society-colonies do not intend associating with the-natives except purely
for their own convenience, and when they do, pay no heed to the code they
enforce among themselves.

It is not harsh judgment in me, I feel sure, when I say that Evan would
not be asked so often to the Bluffs to dinner if he were not a well-known
landscape architect whose advice has a commercial value. They always
manage to obtain enough of it in the guise of after-dinner conversation
and the discussion of garden plans to make him more than earn his fare.
For the Whirlpoolers are very thrifty, the richer the more so, especially
those of Dutch trading blood, and they are not above stopping father on
the road, engaging in easy converse, praising the boys, and then asking
his opinion about a supposititious case, rather than send for him in the
regular way and pay his modest fee.

In fact, Mrs. Ponsonby asked me to a luncheon last autumn, and it
quickly transpired afterward, that she had an open trap for sale suitable
for one horse; she knew that Evan was looking for such a vehicle for me,
and suggested that I might like this one.

A bulky and curious correspondence grew up around the transaction, and
the letters are now lying in my desk marked "Mrs. Ponsonby, and the road
cart." Finally I took the vehicle out on a trial trip. I noticed that it
had a peculiar gait, and stopping at the blacksmith's, called him to
examine the running gear. He gave one look and burst into a guffaw: "Land
alive, Mrs. Evan, that's Missis Ponsonby's cart, that stood so long in
the city stable, with the wheels on, that they're off the circle and no
good. I told her she'd have to get new ones; but her coachman allowed
she'd sell it to some Jay. You ain't bought it, hev yer?"

Good-natured Mrs. Jenks-Smith, the pioneer of the Bluffs, was the
first one to throw open her grounds, when completed, for an afternoon
and evening reception, with all the accompaniments of music, electric
lit fountains, and unlimited refreshments. Everybody went, and
satisfaction reigned for the time; but when another season it was
found that she had no intention of returning calls, great
disappointment was felt. Others in turn exhibited their grounds for