her small hands and
feet were dressed to perfection. Magdalena had heard of the beautiful
Mrs. Washington, and felt it a privilege to sun herself in such
loveliness. The three elderly ladies she had brought with her--Mrs.
Cartright, Mrs. Geary, and Mrs. Brannan--were dressed with extreme
simplicity.

"Yes," replied Mrs. Washington, "they are lovely,--they are, for a fact.
Mine have chilblains or something this year, and won't bloom for a cent.
Hang the luck! I'm as cross as a bear with a sore head about it."

"Would you like me to pick some of ours for you?" asked Magdalena,
wondering if she had better model her verbal accomplishments on Mrs.
Washington's. She thought them even more picturesque than Helena's.

"Do; that's a jolly good fellow."

When Magdalena returned with the violets, they were received with a
bewitching but absent smile; another carriage-load had arrived, and all
were discussing the advent of a "Bonanza" family, whose huge fortune,
made out of the Nevada mines, had recently lifted it from obscurity to
social fame.

"It's just too hateful that I've got to call," said Mrs. Washington, in
her refined melodious voice. "Teddy says that I must, because sooner or
later we've all got to know them,--old Dillon's a red Indian chief in
the financial world; and there's no use kicking against money, anyhow.
But I can't cotton to that sort of people, and I just cried last night
when Teddy--the old darling! I'd do anything to please him--told me I
must call."

"It's a great pity we old families can't keep together," said Mrs.
Brannan, a stout high-nosed dame. "There are plenty of others for them
to know. Why can't they let us alone?"

"That's just what they won't do," cried Mrs. Washington. "We're what
they're after. What's the reason they've come to Menlo Park? They'll be
'landed aristocracy' in less than no time. Hang the luck!"

"Shall you call, Hannah?" asked Mrs. Cartright. "Dear Jack never imposes
any restrictions on me,--he's so handsome about everything; so I shall
be guided by you."

"In time," replied Mrs. Yorba, who also had had a meaning conference
with her husband. "But I shall not rush. Toward the end of the summer,
perhaps. It would be unwise to take them up too quickly."

"I've got to give them a dinner," said Mrs. Washington, with gloom. "But
I'll put it off till the last gun fires. And you've all got to come.
Otherwise you'll see me on the war-path."

"Of course we shall all go, Nell