and cheaply, that the game was not worth the candle. What difference did
it all make, in her actual life? People might whisper and nudge behind
her back, but their invitations seemed to come in much the same as ever,
poor mamma pouncing on each as it came, with a carefully appraising eye.
Wasn't there a hollowness in all this, something wanting?...

Untrained for analysis as she was, she had not thought of herself, in
the months in Europe, as "changed" exactly. It took this recontact with
the familiar environment to reveal to her definitely that her
experiences of the spring and summer had not rolled through her as
through an iron tube. Here were the old stimuli (as scientific fellows
term them); but they failed to bring the old reactions. She was aware
that the elevation of the family position, or its rescue, no longer
filled her whole horizon. Old values shifted. In particular, she found
her soul revolting at the prospect of another season--her fifth--another
winter of endless parties, now with a secret campaign thrown in.

"I'm tired of the same old round, that's all," she said, moodily. "I
want something new--something _different_."

"There's plenty that's new and different, Cally," said Henrietta Cooney,
cheerfully, "if you really want to go in for it. And ten times as
interesting as your old society...."

"And while I think of it," added Hen, "I want to book you now for
Saturday afternoon, four-thirty--open meeting at the Woman's Club on
What Can We Do to Help the Poor. Don't say no. This new man Pond's going
to speak, Director of the Settlement. He'll give us something to take
home and think about."

This conversation took place on the way home from a meeting of the
Equal Suffrage League, to which Henrietta had borne off Cally, not so
completely against the latter's will as you might have supposed. And
oddly enough, Cally found that she could talk quite freely to her poor
cousin, partly because of Hen's insignificance in the gay world, partly,
perhaps, because of the way she had written during the summer.

"Aren't you going to the Settlement opening on Thursday?"

"Can't get away from the bookstore in time. Saturday's a short day,"
said Hen, her eyes on space.... "Look around you, Cally. You'll see lots
more women than you who're sick of parties. I tell you this is the most
interesting time to be alive in that ever was."

Cally smiled wearily at these enthusiasms. Nevertheless she could by now
understand