mean that he admired her more than anybody else. He came fitfully,
but he came often, and she rested content in a girl's indefiniteness
concerning the affair; if her thought went beyond lovemaking to
marriage, she believed that she could have him if she wanted him. Her
father's money counted in this; she divined that Beaton was poor; but
that made no difference; she would have enough for both; the money would
have counted as an irresistible attraction if there had been no other.

The affair had gone on in spite of the sidelong looks of restless
dislike with which Dryfoos regarded it; but now when Beaton did not come
to Saratoga it necessarily dropped, and Christine's content with it.
She bore the trial as long as she could; she used pride and resentment
against it; but at last she could not bear it, and with Mela's help she
wrote a letter, bantering Beaton on his stay in New York, and playfully
boasting of Saratoga. It seemed to them both that it was a very bright
letter, and would be sure to bring him; they would have had no scruple
about sending it but for the doubt they had whether they had got some of
the words right. Mela offered to bet Christine anything she dared that
they were right, and she said, Send it anyway; it was no difference if
they were wrong. But Christine could not endure to think of that laugh
of Beaton's, and there remained only Mrs. Mandel as authority on the
spelling. Christine dreaded her authority on other points, but Mela said
she knew she would not interfere, and she undertook to get round her.
Mrs. Mandel pronounced the spelling bad, and the taste worse; she
forbade them to send the letter; and Mela failed to get round her,
though she threatened, if Mrs. Mandel would not tell her how to spell
the wrong words, that she would send the letter as it was; then Mrs.
Mandel said that if Mr. Beaton appeared in Saratoga she would instantly
take them both home. When Mela reported this result, Christine accused
her of having mismanaged the whole business; she quarrelled with her,
and they called each other names. Christine declared that she would not
stay in Saratoga, and that if Mrs. Mandel did not go back to New York
with her she should go alone. They returned the first week in September;
but by that time Beaton had gone to see his people in Syracuse.

Conrad Dryfoos remained at home with his mother after his father went
West. He had already taken such a vacation as he had been willing to
allow hims