r hand up tentatively to the confection of fur, yellow lace,
and violet orchids.

"I don't think Lenore ballasts my hats properly," she said
plaintively. "It can't be my fault that they slide about so. But I did
n't come to talk about hats."

I sighed. "No, you came to talk about Desire. Mary, how long have you
known about this deplorable affair?"

"Oh--ever since there has been anything to know! Desire has always
talked to me more than to her mother. You know, Ben, one would n't
choose Lucretia as a confidante in any kind of a heart affair."

"Don't put on that worldly air with me, Mary Greening," I said
crossly. "Lucretia is a little austere, but it seems to me that
austerity has its {85} advantages. For instance, it keeps one out of
the newspapers. Am I to infer that you sympathize with Desire?"

"Not at all," she protested. "You may not believe me, but I have
suffered and suffered, over this thing. I can't count the nights I
have lain awake thinking about it. At first it seemed to me I simply
could not have it, and I thought I was going to influence Desire. But
nobody ever influences people in matters of the heart. Of course this
is an affair on the highest possible plane--so I thought they might be
more reasonable. But I don't observe that they are."

"On the highest possible plane," I mused. "Mary, be candid with me. I
would like a good woman's point of view on this. If a game of hearts
ends in the courts, breaking up a home and smashing the lives
concerned to {86} flinders, do you really think it matters whether
that affair is on a high plane or a low one? Does it seem any better
to you for being the finer variety?"

"Certainly it does," returned Mary Greening promptly; "though," she
added reflectively, "judged by results, I see it is illogical to feel
so."

She cogitated a little longer.

"You put the thing too crudely. Here is the point, Ben. The Devil
never makes the mistake of offering the coarser temptation to persons
of taste. You couldn't have tempted Desire to break up her home with
any temptation that did n't include her intellect, her spirit, and her
aesthetic instincts. And when one gets up in that corner of one's
nature, people like you or me or Desire are so used to regarding all
the demands emanating from there as legitimate, as something to be
{87} proud of, to be satisfied at almost any cost, that it takes a
very clear sense of right and wrong to prevent confusion. And,
nowadays, hardl