aborate mansion than the old-fashioned house in
Gramercy Park, was reading to her son such portions of a letter from
James van Tromp as she considered it discreet for him to hear. A stout,
florid lady, in jovial middle age, her appearance as an agent in her
affairs would certainly have surprised Diane, had the vision been
vouchsafed to her.

Passing over those sentences in which the old man admitted the wisdom of
her decision in rejecting his proposals, on the ground that he saw now
that the married state would not have suited him, Mrs. Wappinger came to
what was of common interest.

"'... You will remember, my good friend,'" she read, with a strong
Western accent, "'that both at the time of, and since, your husband's
death I have been helpful to you in your business affairs, and laid you
under some obligation to me. I have, therefore, no scruple in asking you
to fulfil a few wishes of mine, in token of such gratitude as I conceive
you to feel. There will arrive in your city by the steamer _Picardie_,
on the twenty-eighth day of this month, two foolish women, answering to
the name of Eveleth--mother-in-law and daughter-in-law--both widows--and
presenting the sorry spectacle of Naomi and Ruth returning to the Land
of Promise, after a ruinous sojourn in a foreign country--with whose
history you are familiar from your reading of the Scriptures.'"

"Is there a Bible in the house, mother?" Carli Wappinger asked, swinging
himself on the piano-stool.

"I think there must be--somewhere. There used to be one. But, hush! Let
me go on. 'They will descend,'" she continued to read, "'at a modest
French hostelry in University Place, to which I have commended them, as
being within their means. I desire, first, that you will make their
acquaintance at your earliest possible convenience. I desire, next, that
you will invite them to your house on some occasion, presumably in the
afternoon, when you can also ask my nephew, Derek Pruyn, and Lucilla van
Tromp, my niece, to meet them. I desire, furthermore, that though you
may use my name to the Mesdames Eveleth, as a passport to their
presence, you will in no wise speak of me to my relatives in question,
or give them to understand that I have inspired the invitation you will
accord them....'"

Mrs. Wappinger threw down the letter with the emphasis of gesture which
was one of her characteristics.

"There!" she exclaimed, in a loud, hearty voice, not without a note of
triumph; "that's