din, Henrietta Cooney was
heard crying, with a passion of pride:

"Well, it's about _time_!... It's the first thing V.V.'s ever got--the
first _tribute_.... A boy like that--"

Hen, curiously, was winking a little as the two girls rose. And she
added in a moved voice, as if seeking to explain herself:

"Well, think of the hard life he has down there, Cally,--no pleasure, no
fun, no companionship.... And this is the first notice of _any
kind_ ..."

The meeting was over. The crowded parlors were in a hubbub. Colored
servants entered, taking away the camp-chairs. A general drift toward
the platform was in evidence. And Cally, standing with the others and
ready to go, seemed to see no clear course at all among the disturbing
cross-currents which she suddenly felt within her, impelling her now
this way, now that. If she could not think of V. Vivian as hard now,
exactly, a new "attitude" was obviously needed, consistent with her duty
to papa. It must be that the strange young man was obsessed by beautiful
but impossible ideas about the equality of the poor and so on. Carried
away by excessive sympathies, he took wild extreme views....

"Are you going to stay for tea, Hen?" she asked, amid the stir and vocal
noises of two hundred women.

But Hen said no; getting tea for the Cooney invalids was her portion.

"We'll just stop a minute and speak to V.V.," she added, as if that went
without saying.

But this time Cally said no, somewhat hastily. And then she explained
that she must go home to dress, as mamma was having some people to
dinner to-night. Hen looked disappointed.

"Well, there's no chance of getting near him now, anyway. Look at that
jam around the platform.... Stay just a minute or two, Cally."

The two cousins, the rich and the poor, and looking it, strolled among
the Clubbers, Henrietta speaking to nearly everybody, and invariably
asking how they had liked Dr. Vivian's speech, Pond and the Mayor
ignored. She also introduced her cousin right and left, and enjoyed
herself immensely.

Cally, having matters to think about, again remarked that she must go.
She saw Hen glance hungrily over the dense lively crowd, densest around
the platform, and promptly added: "But of course you mustn't think of
coming with me."

Henrietta hesitated. "You wouldn't mind if I stayed on a minute? I
_would_ like just to say a word to V.V."

Cally assured her. "And thank you for bringing me, Hen. I--had no idea
it would be so