re of figure, with his look of worldly
importance, of assured material success, he stood to-day, as Cyrus had
stood a quarter of a century ago, as an imposing example of that
Treadwell spirit from which his youth had revolted.

That night, when they had finished dinner, and Oliver, in response to a
telephone message, had hurried down to the theatre, Virginia went
upstairs to her room, and, after putting on the lavender silk
dressing-gown which Miss Willy had made for the occasion, sat down to
write her weekly letter to Harry.

MY DARLING BOY.

I know you will be surprised to see from this letter that I am
really in New York at last--and at the Waldorf! It seems almost
like a dream to me, and whenever I shut my eyes, I find myself
forgetting that I am not in Dinwiddie--but, you remember, your
father had always promised me that I should come for the first
night of his new play, which will be acted to-morrow. You simply
can't imagine till you get here how famous he is and how interested
people are in everything about him, even the smallest trifles.
Wherever you look you see advertisements of his plays (he has three
running now) and coming up Broadway for only a block or two last
night, I am sure that I saw Miss Oldcastle's picture a dozen times.
I should think she would hate dreadfully to have to make herself so
conspicuous--for she has a nice, refined face--but Oliver says all
actresses have to do it if they want to get on. He takes all the
fuss they make over him just as if he despised it, though I am sure
that in his heart he can't help being pleased. While we were having
dinner, everybody in the dining-room was turning to look at him,
and if I hadn't known, of course, that not a soul was thinking of
me, I should have felt badly because I hadn't time to change my
dress after I got here. All the other women were beautifully
dressed (I never dreamed that there were so many diamonds in the
world. Miss Willy would simply go crazy over them), but I didn't
mind a bit, and if anybody thought of me at all, of course, they
knew that I had just stepped off the train. After dinner your
father went to the theatre, and I sat downstairs alone in the
corridor for a while and watched the people coming and going. It
was perfectly fascinating at first. I never saw so many beautiful
women, and