stead of a beauty.

The guests in whom we may have some interest were in the mean time
making ready for the party, which was expected to be a brilliant one;
for 24 Carat Place was well known for the handsome style of its
entertainments.

Clement Lindsay was a little surprised by his invitation. He had,
however, been made a lion of several times of late; and was very willing
to amuse himself once in a while with a peep into the great world. It
was but an empty show to him at best, for his lot was cast, and he
expected to lead a quiet domestic life after his student days were over.

Master Byles Gridley had known what society was in his earlier time, and
understood very well that all a gentleman of his age had to do was to
dress himself in his usual plain way, only taking a little more care in
his arrangements than was needed in the latitude of Oxbow Village. But
Gifted must be looked after, that he should not provoke the unamiable
comments of the city youth by any defect or extravagance of costume. The
young gentleman had bought a light sky-blue neckerchief, and a very
large breastpin containing a gem which he was assured by the vendor was
a genuine stone. He considered that both these would be eminently
effective articles of dress, and Mr. Gridley had some trouble to
convince him that a white tie and plain shirt-buttons would be more
fitted to the occasion.

On the morning of the day of the great party Mr. William Murray Bradshaw
received a brief telegram, which seemed to cause him great emotion, as
he changed color, uttered a forcible exclamation, and began walking up
and down his room in a very nervous kind of way. It was a foreshadowing
of a certain event now pretty sure to happen. Whatever bearing this
telegram may have had upon his plans, he made up his mind that he would
contrive an opportunity somehow that very evening to propose himself as
a suitor to Myrtle Hazard. He could not say that he felt as absolutely
certain of getting the right answer as he had felt at some previous
periods. Myrtle knew her price, he said to himself, a great deal better
than when she was a simple country girl. The flatteries with which she
had been surrounded, and the effect of all the new appliances of beauty,
which had set her off so that she could not help seeing her own
attractions, rendered her harder to please and to satisfy. A little
experience in society teaches a young girl the arts and the phrases
which all the Lotharios