ble to regard Wilbur as lacking in
force and enterprise. The reflection that she would thus be working--as
necessarily she would--for the eternal progress of truth, added a
pleasant savor to the undertaking, for it was clear that her husband was
an ideal architect for the purpose, and she would be doing a true
service to Mr. Parsons in convincing him that this was so. Altogether
her soul was in an agreeable flutter, notwithstanding that her neighbor
Flossy had recently received invitations to two or three large balls,
and been referred to in the society columns of the newspapers as the
fascinating and clever wife of the rising banker Gregory Williams.

The Littletons were promptly given by Flossy the opportunity to make the
acquaintance of the Parsons family. Mr. Parsons was a ponderous man of
over sixty, with a solid, rotund, grave face and a chin whisker. He was
absorbed in financial interests, though he had retired from active
business, and had come to New York to live chiefly to please his wife
and daughter. Mrs. Parsons, who was somewhat her husband's junior, was a
devotee, or more correctly, a debauchee, of hotel life. Since the time
when they had become exceedingly rich, about ten years before, they had
made a grand tour of the hotels of this country and Europe. By so doing
Mrs. Parsons and her daughter felt that they became a part of the social
life of the cities which they visited. Although they had been used to
plain, if not slovenly, house-keeping before the money came, both the
wife and daughter had evolved into connoisseurs of modish and luxurious
hotel apparatus and garniture. They had learned to revel in many
courses, radiantly upholstered parlors, and a close acquaintance with
the hotel register. Society for them, wherever they went, meant finding
out the names of the other guests and dressing for them, being on easy
terms with the head waiter and elevator boy, visiting the theatres, and
keeping up a round of shopping in pursuit of articles of apparel. They
wore rich garments and considerable jewelry, and plastered
themselves--especially the daughter--with bunches of violets or roses
self-bestowed. Mrs. Parsons was partial to perfume, and they both were
addicted to the free consumption of assorted bonbons. To be sure they
had made some acquaintances in the course of their peregrinations, but
one reason for moving to New York was that Mrs. Parsons had come to the
melancholy conclusion that neither the prin