nd plays upon
the piano, particularly when Frank's here. I wouldn't mind so much for
myself, but I know it must annoy him. All her pieces are so noisy. She
never plays anything really delicate and refined."

"I don't like the way she dresses," observed Anna, sympathetically.
"She gets herself up too conspicuously. Now, the other day I saw her out
driving, and oh, dear! you should have seen her! She had on a crimson
Zouave jacket heavily braided with black about the edges, and a turban
with a huge crimson feather, and crimson ribbons reaching nearly to her
waist. Imagine that kind of a hat to drive in. And her hands! You should
have seen the way she held her hands--oh--just so--self-consciously.
They were curved just so"--and she showed how. "She had on yellow
gauntlets, and she held the reins in one hand and the whip in the other.
She drives just like mad when she drives, anyhow, and William, the
footman, was up behind her. You should just have seen her. Oh, dear!
oh, dear! she does think she is so much!" And Anna giggled, half in
reproach, half in amusement.

"I suppose we'll have to invite her; I don't see how we can get out of
it. I know just how she'll do, though. She'll walk about and pose and
hold her nose up."

"Really, I don't see how she can," commented Anna. "Now, I like Norah.
She's much nicer. She doesn't think she's so much."

"I like Norah, too," added Mrs. Cowperwood. "She's really very sweet,
and to me she's prettier."

"Oh, indeed, I think so, too."

It was curious, though, that it was Aileen who commanded nearly all
their attention and fixed their minds on her so-called idiosyncrasies.
All they said was in its peculiar way true; but in addition the girl was
really beautiful and much above the average intelligence and force. She
was running deep with ambition, and she was all the more conspicuous,
and in a way irritating to some, because she reflected in her own
consciousness her social defects, against which she was inwardly
fighting. She resented the fact that people could justly consider her
parents ineligible, and for that reason her also. She was intrinsically
as worth while as any one. Cowperwood, so able, and rapidly becoming so
distinguished, seemed to realize it. The days that had been passing had
brought them somewhat closer together in spirit. He was nice to her and
liked to talk to her. Whenever he was at her home now, or she was at his
and he was present, he managed somehow to say a