d prize was now all but within the
shallow woman's grasp. Alas! she knew not that when her itching
fingers closed about it the golden bauble would crumble to ashes.

The program as outlined by the Beaubien had been faithfully followed.
Mrs. J. Wilton Ames had met Mrs. Hawley-Crowles--whom, of course, she
had long desired to know more intimately--and an interchange of calls
had ensued, succeeded by a grand reception at the Ames mansion, the
first of the social season. To this Mrs. Hawley-Crowles floated, as
upon a cloud, attired in a French gown which cost fifteen hundred
dollars, and shoes on her disproportioned feet for which she had
rejoiced to pay thirty dollars each, made as they had been from
specially selected imported leather, dyed to match her rich robe. It
was true, her pleasure had not been wholly unalloyed, for she had been
conscious of a trace of superciliousness on the part of some of the
gorgeous birds of paradise, twittering and hopping in their hampering
skirts about the Ames parlors, and pecking, with milk-fed content, at
the rare cakes and ices. But she only held her empty head the higher,
and fluttered about the more ostentatiously and clumsily, while
anticipating the effect which her charming and talented ward would
produce when she should make her bow to these same vain, haughty
devotees of the cult of gold. And she had wisely planned that Carmen's
_debut_ should follow that of Kathleen Ames, that it might eclipse her
rival's in its wanton display of magnificence.

On the heels of the Ames reception surged the full flood of the
winter's social orgy. Early in November Kathleen Ames was duly
presented. The occasion was made one of such stupendous display that
Mrs. Hawley-Crowles first gasped, then shivered with apprehension,
lest she be unable to outdo it. She went home from it in a somewhat
chastened frame of mind, and sat down at her _escritoire_ to make
calculations. Could she on her meager annual income of one hundred and
fifty thousand hope to meet the Ames millions? She had already allowed
that her wardrobe would cost not less than twenty-five thousand
dollars a year, to say nothing of the additional expense of properly
dressing Carmen. But she now saw that this amount was hopelessly
inadequate. She therefore increased the figure to seventy-five
thousand. But that took half of her income. Could she maintain her
city home, entertain in the style now demanded by her social position,
and spend he