ry," she said. "We're keeping everyone
waiting."

As Selma was making a few passes at her rebellious thick hair--passes
the like of which Miss Clearwater had never before seen--she explained:

"I've been somewhat interested in David Hull of late--have been hoping
he could graduate from a fake reformer into a useful citizen. But--"
She looked round expressively at the luxury surrounding them--"one
might as well try to grow wheat in sand."

"Davy is a fine fraud," said Ellen. "Fine--because he doesn't in the
least realize that he's a fraud."

"I'm afraid he is a fraud," said Selma setting on her hat again. "What
a pity? He might have been a man, if he'd been brought up properly."
She gazed at Ellen with sad, shining eyes. "How many men and women
luxury blights!" she cried.

"It certainly has done for Davy," said Ellen lightly. "He'll never be
anything but a respectable fraud."

"Why do YOU think so?" Selma inquired.

"My father is a public man," Miss Clearwater explained. "And I've seen
a great deal of these reformers. They're the ordinary human variety of
politician plus a more or less conscious hypocrisy. Usually they're
men who fancy themselves superior to the common run in birth and
breeding. My father has taught me to size them up."

They went down, and Selma, seated between Jane and Miss Clearwater,
amused both with her frank comments on the scene so strange to her--the
beautiful table, the costly service, the variety and profusion of
elaborate food. In fact, Jane, reaching out after the effects got
easily in Europe and almost as easily in the East, but overtaxed the
resources of the household which she was only beginning to get into
what she regarded as satisfactory order. The luncheon, therefore, was
a creditable and promising attempt rather than a success, from the
standpoint of fashion. Jane was a little ashamed, and at times
extremely nervous--this when she saw signs of her staff falling into
disorder that might end in rout. But Selma saw none of the defects.
She was delighted with the dazzling spectacle--for two or three
courses. Then she lapsed into quiet and could not be roused to speak.

Jane and Ellen thought she was overwhelmed and had been seized of
shyness in this company so superior to any in which she had ever found
herself. Ellen tried to induce her to eat, and, failing, decided that
her refraining was not so much firmness in the two meals-a-day system
as fear of making a