of
this before! She would get Carmen to hypothecate her own interest in
this new company, if necessary. That interest of itself was worth a
fortune.

Quite true. And if Mrs. Hawley-Crowles and Carmen so desired, the
Beaubien would advance them whatever they might need on that
security alone. Or, she would take the personal notes of Mrs.
Hawley-Crowles--"For, you know, my dear," she said sweetly, "when
your father passes away you are going to be very well off, indeed, and
I can afford to discount that inevitable event somewhat, can I
not?" And she not only could, but did.

Then Mrs. Hawley-Crowles soared into the empyrean, and this
self-absorbed woman, who never in her life had earned the equivalent
of a single day's food, launched the sweet, white-souled girl of
the tropics upon the oozy waters of New York society with such
_eclat_ that the Sunday newspapers devoted a whole page, profusely
illustrated, to the gorgeous event and dilated with much extravagance
of expression upon the charms of the little Inca princess, and
upon the very important and gratifying fact that the three hundred
fashionable guests present displayed jewels to the value of not less
than ten million dollars.

The function took the form of a musicale, in which Carmen's rich
voice was first made known to the _beau monde_. The girl instantly
swept her auditors from their feet. The splendid pipe-organ, which
Mrs. Hawley-Crowles had hurriedly installed for the occasion,
became a thing inspired under her deft touch. It seemed in that
garish display of worldliness to voice her soul's purity, its
wonder, its astonishment, its lament over the vacuities of this
highest type of human society, its ominous threats of thundered
denunciation on the day when her tongue should be loosed and the
present mesmeric spell broken--for she was under a spell, even
that of this new world of tinsel and material veneer.

The decrepit old Mrs. Gannette wept on Carmen's shoulder, and went
home vowing that she would be a better woman and cut out her night-cap
of Scotch-and-soda. Others crowded about the girl and showered their
fulsome praise upon her. But not so Mrs. Ames and her daughter
Kathleen. They stared at the lovely _debutante_ with wonder and
chagrin written legibly upon their bepowdered visages. And before the
close of the function Kathleen had become so angrily jealous that she
was grossly rude to Carmen when she bade her good night. For her own
feeble light had