eople?"--"I heard they were
coming," said Faith.

"If you will only stand by and look on, it will amuse you very much."

"It will amuse me anyway," said Faith, "if,"--and what a rose colour
came up into her face--"if, Endy, you are satisfied."

Mr. Linden folded his arms and looked at her. "If you say anything
against my wife, Mrs. Linden, her husband will not like it--neither
will yours."

"That is all I care about, not pleasing those two gentlemen," said
Faith, laughing.

"Is that all? I shall report your mind at rest. Come, it is time this
little exotic should appear." Faith thought as she went with him, that
she was anything but an _exotic;_ she did not speak her thoughts.

There was a large dinner company gathered and gathering; and the
"pleasure" Mr. Linden had spoken of--introducing his wife--was one
enjoyed, by him or somebody, a great many times in the course of the
evening. This was something very unlike Pattaquasset or anything to be
found there; only in Judge Harrison's house little glimpses of this
sort of society might be had; and these people seemed to Faith rather
in the sphere of Dr. Harrison than of his father and sister. People who
had rubbed off every particle of native simplicity that ever belonged
to them, and who, if they were simple at all--as some of them were--had
a different kind of simplicity, made after a most exquisite and refined
worldly fashion. How it was made or worn, Faith could not tell; she had
an instinctive feeling of the difference. If she had set on foot a
comparison, she would soon have come to the conclusion that "Mr.
Linden's wife" was of another pattern altogether. But Faith never
thought of doing that. Her words were so true that she had spoken, she
cared so singly to satisfy one person there, and had such an humble
confidence of doing it, that other people gave her little concern. She
had little need, for no word or glance fell upon Faith that did not
show the eye or the speaker won or attracted. The words and glances
were very many, but Faith never found out or suspected that it was to
see _her_ all this party of grand people had been gathered together.
She thought they were curious about "Mr. Linden's wife;" and though
their curiosity made her shy, and her sense of responsibility gave an
exquisite tenderness to her manner, both effects only set a grace upon
her usual free simplicity. That was not disturbed, though a good deal
of the time Faith was far from Mr. Lind