z knew exactly how much.

There was a quizzical smile upon Kate's face as she passed down the
steps of the bank and turned up the street on another errand. She was
walking with her eyes bent upon the sidewalk, thinking hard, when her
way was blocked by Mrs. Abram Pantin extending a high supine hand with
the charming cordiality which distinguished her best social manner. Mrs.
Pantin slipped her manner on and off, as the occasion warranted, as she
did her kitchen apron.

The suddenness of the meeting surprised Kate into a look of
astonishment.

"This is Miss Prentice, isn't it?"

"That's the general impression," Kate answered.

Mrs. Pantin registered vivacity by winking rapidly and twittering in a
pert birdlike fashion:

"I've so much wanted to know you!"

The reply that there always had been ample opportunity seemed
superfluous, so Kate said nothing.

"I've been reading about you, you know, and I want to tell you how proud
we all are of you and of what you have accomplished. This is Woman's
Day, isn't it?"

Since she seemed not to expect an answer, Kate made none and Mrs. Pantin
continued:

"I've been wanting to see you that I might ask you to come to me--say
next Thursday?"

Mrs. Pantin's manner was tinged with patronage.

Kate's silence deceived her. She imagined that Kate was awed and
tongue-tied in her presence. The woman was, as Prissy had assured Abram,
"tickled to pieces."

In the meanwhile, interested observers of the meeting were saying to
each other cynically:

"Nothing succeeds like success, does it?"

This time, apparently, Mrs. Pantin expected an answer, so Kate asked
bluntly:

"What for?"

"Luncheon. At one--we are very old-fashioned. I want you to meet some of
our best ladies--Mrs. Sudds--Mrs. Neifkins--Mrs. Toomey--and others."

As she enumerated the guests on her fingers the tip of Mrs. Pantin's
pink tongue darted in and out with the rapierlike movement of an
ant-eater.

Kate's face hardened and she replied curtly:

"I already have had that doubtful pleasure upon an occasion, which you
should remember."

Mrs. Pantin flushed. Disconcerted for a moment, she collected herself,
and instead of protesting ignorance of her meaning, as she was tempted,
she said candidly:

"We must let bygones be bygones, Miss Prentice, and be friends. We are
older now, and wiser, aren't we?"

Kate clasped her hands behind her, a mannerism with which offending
herders were familiar, and regarded