esses,
jewels, etc., were offered. She liked music and the idea of painting,
though she had no talent in that direction; and books, novels,
interested her, but she could not get them. The rest--grammar, spelling,
sewing, church and general history--she loathed. Deportment--well, there
was something in that. She had liked the rather exaggerated curtsies
they taught her, and she had often reflected on how she would use them
when she reached home.

When she came out into life the little social distinctions which have
been indicated began to impress themselves on her, and she wished
sincerely that her father would build a better home--a mansion--such as
those she saw elsewhere, and launch her properly in society. Failing in
that, she could think of nothing save clothes, jewels, riding-horses,
carriages, and the appropriate changes of costume which were allowed her
for these. Her family could not entertain in any distinguished way where
they were, and so already, at eighteen, she was beginning to feel the
sting of a blighted ambition. She was eager for life. How was she to get
it?

Her room was a study in the foibles of an eager and ambitious mind. It
was full of clothes, beautiful things for all occasions--jewelry--which
she had small opportunity to wear--shoes, stockings, lingerie, laces. In
a crude way she had made a study of perfumes and cosmetics, though she
needed the latter not at all, and these were present in abundance.
She was not very orderly, and she loved lavishness of display; and
her curtains, hangings, table ornaments, and pictures inclined to
gorgeousness, which did not go well with the rest of the house.

Aileen always reminded Cowperwood of a high-stepping horse without a
check-rein. He met her at various times, shopping with her mother, out
driving with her father, and he was always interested and amused at the
affected, bored tone she assumed before him--the "Oh, dear! Oh, dear!
Life is so tiresome, don't you know," when, as a matter of fact, every
moment of it was of thrilling interest to her. Cowperwood took her
mental measurement exactly. A girl with a high sense of life in her,
romantic, full of the thought of love and its possibilities. As he
looked at her he had the sense of seeing the best that nature can do
when she attempts to produce physical perfection. The thought came to
him that some lucky young dog would marry her pretty soon and carry her
away; but whoever secured her would have to hol