d the wedding-present coffee urn.

"David," she began, as soon as he finished the blessing, "I've been
thinking all day of what you said about Mrs. Waldemar, and I've been
ashamed of myself. I really have avoided her. She is so old, and
clever, and I am such a goose, and people said things about her,
and--but after last night I was ashamed. So to-day I went to see her,
all alone by myself, without a gun or anything to protect me."

David laughed, nodding at her approvingly. "Good for you, Carol," he
cried in approbation. "That was fine. How did you get along?"

"Just grand. And isn't she interesting? And so kind. I believe she
likes me. She kept me a long time and made me a cup of tea, and begged
me to come again. She nearly hypnotized me, I am really infatuated
with her. Oh, we had a lovely time. She is different from us, but it
does us good to mix with other kinds, don't you think so? I believe
she did me good. I feel very emancipated to-night."

Carol tossed her blue-ribboned, curly head, and the warm approval in
David's eyes cooled a little.

"What did she have to say?" he asked curiously.

"Oh, she talked a lot about being broad, and generous, and not allowing
environment to dwarf one. She thinks it is a shame for a--a--girl of
my--well, she called it my 'divine sparkle,' and she said it was a
compliment,--anyhow, she said it was a shame I should be confined to a
little half-souled bunch of Presbyterians in the Heights. She has a
lot of friends down-town, advanced thinkers, she calls them,--a poet,
and some authors, and artists, and musicians,--folks like that. They
have informal meetings every week or so, and she is going to take me.
She says I will enjoy them and that they will adore me."

Carol's voice swelled with triumph, and David's approval turned to ice.

"She must have liked me or she wouldn't have been so friendly. She
laughed at the Heights,--she called it a 'little, money-saving,
heart-squeezing, church-bound neighborhood.' She said I must study new
thoughts and read the new poetry, and run out with her to grip souls
with real people now and then, to keep my star from tarnishing. I
didn't understand all she said, but it sounded irresistible. Oh, she
was lovely to me."

"She shouldn't have talked to you like that," protested David quickly.
"She is not fair to our people. She can not understand them because
they live sweet, simple lives where home and church are throned. N