d unbred as they. Her error was in arguing their
attitude from her own temperament, and endowing them, for the purposes
of argument, with her perspective. They had not the means, intellectual
or moral, of feeling as she fancied. If they had remained at home on the
farm where they were born, Christine would have grown up that embodiment
of impassioned suspicion which we find oftenest in the narrowest
spheres, and Mela would always have been a good-natured simpleton; but
they would never have doubted their equality with the wisest and the
finest. As it was, they had not learned enough at school to doubt it,
and the splendor of their father's success in making money had blinded
them forever to any possible difference against them. They had no
question of themselves in the social abeyance to which they had been
left in New York. They had been surprised, mystified; it was not what
they had expected; there must be some mistake.

They were the victims of an accident, which would be repaired as soon
as the fact of their father's wealth had got around. They had been
steadfast in their faith, through all their disappointment, that they
were not only better than most people by virtue of his money, but
as good as any; and they took Margaret's visit, so far as they,
investigated its motive, for a sign that at last it was beginning to get
around; of course, a thing could not get around in New York so quick as
it could in a small place. They were confirmed in their belief by the
sensation of Mrs. Mandel when she returned to duty that afternoon, and
they consulted her about going to Mrs. Horn's musicale. If she had felt
any doubt at the name for there were Horns and Horns--the address on the
card put the matter beyond question; and she tried to make her charges
understand what a precious chance had befallen them. She did not
succeed; they had not the premises, the experience, for a sufficient
impression; and she undid her work in part by the effort to explain
that Mrs. Horn's standing was independent of money; that though she was
positively rich, she was comparatively poor. Christine inferred that
Miss Vance had called because she wished to be the first to get in with
them since it had begun to get around. This view commended itself to
Mela, too, but without warping her from her opinion that Miss Vance
was all the same too sweet for anything. She had not so vivid a
consciousness of her father's money as Christine had; but she reposed
p