ther what fine piano players the Miller girls were, what sweet
singers Dr. Lacy's daughters were, and the male quartette was very fine.
Ryland and Westbrooke are members of it, and after relating a number of
other things which she heard and saw, she told her mother she could not
tell her all now, but would some other time.

So one afternoon, when they were alone, Stella said: "Well, mother, I
will relate to you now some of my funny experiences with some of the
swell young gentlemen of Roseland. They were all aunt's special pets. I
had been out riding with young Ryland, the banker's son, several times,
besides sometimes meeting him at parties. He is very dudish, and dresses
very extravagantly. He is labeled as catch number one, because his
father has said his son should take his place in the bank some day, and
on his wedding day he gets a gift from his father of twenty-five
thousand dollars, with the promise of the bulk of his father's fortune
when he dies. On the first few occasions when I met young Ryland he
seemed reserved and quiet, but the more I went out riding with him I
found he was getting rather soft. He did not seem to show any other
traits of character, and his company was dull, but he made it more
sickening each time with soft, slobbering talk. I only went out with him
to please aunt. The last time I rode out with him he plead so hard for
me to allow him to kiss my hand that I consented grudgingly just to
quiet him, but after he kissed it instead of his being quiet, as I
supposed he would be, it seemed to fire him all the more, so that he
wanted to kiss my cheek. You ought to have heard the way he talked; you
would think he was about to die, and the only remedy there was for him
was to kiss my cheek. If he could only kiss me on the cheek, life would
come back to him and he would feel a new man. In my own mind, I said to
myself, 'This is the last time I ride out with you.' The more I tried to
show how foolish he was to want to kiss a young lady that did not want
any such manifestation of affection, the more he persisted, and said, 'I
must kiss you.' I said, 'If I loved you, it would be a real pleasure to
receive a kiss from you, but instead of loving you I lose all the
respect I ever had for you because you try to force me to accept a kiss
from you when I don't want it.' But he persisted, and said, 'I must kiss
you, it will do me lots of good, and won't hurt you.' I said, 'Have you
no respect for me or yoursel