,
who was her trustee. His acquaintance with the lady was only a week
old. Well, he hadn't thought to mention it to such friends as he had
happened to meet. Been too busy digging up matter for that infernal
column. Yes, he thought he could manage to introduce them to her
later. She had brought no letters and as she was a Virginian by birth
and had gone abroad in her childhood and married a foreigner as soon as
she grew up she knew practically no one in New York and didn't seem to
wish to know any one. But he fancied she was getting rather bored.
She had been here for a month--resting--before she even went to the
theatre. Oh, yes, she could be quite animated. Was interested in
everything one would expect of a woman of her intelligence. But the
war had tired her out. She had seen no one but Judge Trent until the
past week. . . .

He kept one eye on the still resentful Abbott, who refused to enhance
his triumph by joining his temporary court, and slipped away before the
beginning of the last act. Dinwiddie resigned his seat with a sigh but
looked flushed and happy.

"Poor old codger," thought Clavering as he received a welcoming smile,
and then he told her of the excitement in the foyer.

"But that is amusing!" she said. "How naive people are after all, even
in a great city like New York."

"Oh, people as active mentally as this crowd never grow blase, however
they may affect it. But surely you had your triumphs in Europe."

"Oh, yes. Once an entire house--it was at the opera--rose as I entered
my box at the end of the first act. But that was a thousand years
ago--like everything else before the war."

"That must be an experience a woman never forgets."

"It is sometimes sad to remember it."

"Dinwiddie tells me that your cousin, who was Mary Ogden, once had a
similar experience. It certainly must be a sad memory for her."

"Yes, Mary was one of the great beauties of Europe in her day--and of a
fascination! Men went mad over her--but mad! She took growing old
very hard. Her husband was handsome and attractive, but--well,
fortunately he preferred other women, and was soon too indifferent to
Mary to be jealous. He was the sort of man no woman could hold, but
Mary soon cared as little about him. And she had her consolations!
She could pick and choose. It was a sad day for Mary when men left her
for younger women."

"But I thought that European men were not such blind worshippers of
youth as