sband and the great position he gave her,
and the rumors had been dismissed for more interesting scandals, both
public and private, at home. They no doubt would have remained in the
limbo of history had she returned looking no better than themselves,
but her ridiculous defiance of nature revived them, and these ladies
discovered that their memories were more lively than might have been
expected of their years.

It would be too much, as Mary told Clavering, to ask a violent
contradiction of human nature from worn out glands, and she bore them
no malice. She only wondered that Jane Oglethorpe, Elinor Goodrich,
and Lily Tracy were still faithful in private--to the world all of them
preserved a united front; they would not even discuss her with their
children, much less their grandchildren; but they made up their minds
that it would be for the good of her soul to let her see, with no flaw
in their politeness, just what uncompromisingly sensible women of high
moral and social responsibilities thought of her.

Mary, being human, felt the pin-pricks, but was glad on the whole to be
rid of them. Those first weeks of almost girlish pleasure in what was
to her a novel society, had vanished for ever on the night of her
dinner. Scornful and indifferent she might be, but although they could
not kill her youth, they drove home to her what she had guessed in the
beginning, that the society and the companionship of young
people--fashionable young people, at least--were not for her. Their
conversations, interests, shallow mental attitude to life, bored her.
That curious brief period of mental rejuvenescence had been due to the
novelty and excitement of being in love again, after long and arid
years.

And now, Judge Trent had told her that she would be free to leave in a
fortnight. She had walked the three miles from Broad Street with a
buoyant step, and she had vowed that never, not for any consideration
whatever, would she set foot in America again. Vienna was the city of
her heart as well as of her future exploits. She would buy the old
Zattiany palace from her widowed niece-in-law and make it the most
famous rendezvous in Europe. But of all this nothing to Clavering
until they were in the Dolomites.

She rang for her maid and exchanged her tweed walking suit for a tea
gown of violet velvet and snow white chiffon, with stockings and
slippers to match. She expected no one but it was always a delight to
her to be exquisit