in, don't you think?"

"Do you know that she expects to?"

"All the usual signs are out--a box here, a house on Fifth Avenue."

This study of Aileen puzzled and disturbed Berenice a little.
Nevertheless, she felt immensely superior. Her soul seemed to soar
over the plain Aileen inhabited. The type of the latter's escorts
suggested error--a lack of social discrimination. Because of the high
position he had succeeded in achieving Cowperwood was entitled, no
doubt, to be dissatisfied. His wife had not kept pace with him, or,
rather, had not eluded him in his onward flight--had not run swiftly
before, like a winged victory. Berenice reflected that if she were
dealing with such a man he should never know her truly--he should be
made to wonder and to doubt. Lines of care and disappointment should
never mar her face. She would scheme and dream and conceal and evade.
He should dance attendance, whoever he was.

Nevertheless, here she herself was, at twenty-two, unmarried, her
background insecure, the very ground on which she walked treacherous.
Braxmar knew, and Beales Chadsey, and Cowperwood. At least three or
four of her acquaintances must have been at the Waldorf on that fatal
night. How long would it be before others became aware? She tried
eluding her mother, Cowperwood, and the situation generally by freely
accepting more extended invitations and by trying to see whether there
was not some opening for her in the field of art. She thought of
painting and essayed several canvases which she took to dealers. The
work was subtle, remote, fanciful--a snow scene with purple edges; a
thinking satyr, iron-like in his heaviness, brooding over a cloudy
valley; a lurking devil peering at a praying Marguerite; a Dutch
interior inspired by Mrs. Batjer, and various dancing figures.
Phlegmatic dealers of somber mien admitted some promise, but pointed
out the difficulty of sales. Beginners were numerous. Art was long.
If she went on, of course.... Let them see other things. She turned
her thoughts to dancing.

This art in its interpretative sense was just being introduced into
America, a certain Althea Baker having created a good deal of stir in
society by this means. With the idea of duplicating or surpassing the
success of this woman Berenice conceived a dance series of her own.
One was to be "The Terror"--a nymph dancing in the spring woods, but
eventually pursued and terrorized by a faun; another, "The Peacock," a