stration?" Ruth asked, as she threw down
on the table a daintily written epistle. There was an eager grasping
after it by this merry trio, and Eurie securing it, read aloud. It was
an invitation for the next evening to a select gathering of choice
spirits for the purpose of enjoying a social evening at cards.

"What do you propose to do with it?" Marion asked, as Eurie balanced the
note on her hand with an amused face; the illustration fitted so
remarkably into the talk.

"Decline it," Ruth said, briefly. And then added, as an after-thought,
"I never gave the subject any attention in my life. I am, perhaps, not
entirely convinced now, only I see as Flossy does, that I shall
certainly do no harm by declining; whereas it seems I may possibly do
some by accepting; therefore, of course, the way is clear."

She said it with the utmost composure, and it was evident that the idea
of such a course being disagreeable to her, or of her considering it a
cross to decline, had not occurred to her. She cared nothing at all
about these matters, and had only been involved in them as a sort of
necessity belonging to society. She was more than willing to be "counted
out."

As for Flossy, she drew a little sigh of envy. She would have given much
to have been constituted like Ruth Erskine. She knew that the same like
invitation would probably come to her, and she knew that she would
decline it; but, aside from loss of the pleasure and excitement of the
pretty toilet and the pleasant evening among her friends, she foresaw
long and wearisome discussions with Col. Baker, with Charlie, with her
father; sarcastic remarks from Kitty and her lover, and a long train of
annoyances. She dreaded them all; it was so easy to slip along with the
current; it was so hard to stem it and insist on going the other way.

As for Marion Wilbur, she envied them both; a chance for them to dash
out into a new channel and make some headway, not the everlasting
humdrum sameness that filled her life.

Flossy was fascinated with the Bible words, that were so new and fresh
to her.

"Those verses cover a great deal of ground," she said, slowly reading
them over again. "I can think of a good many things which we call right
enough, that, measured by that test, would have to be changed or given
up. But, Marion, you spoke of dancing and theatre-going. I can't quite
see what the verses have to do with either of those amusements; I mean
not as we, and the people in ou