es, to account for the social recognition which Flossy and
her husband were beginning to receive. It had not been easy to bear with
equanimity during the last year the ingenuous, light-hearted warblings
in which Flossy had indulged as an outlet to her triumphant spirits, and
to listen to naive recitals of new progress, as though she herself were
a companion or ladies' maid, to whom such developments could never
happen. She was weary of being merely a recipient of confidences and a
sympathetic listener, and more weary still of being regarded as such by
her self-absorbed and successful neighbor. Why should Flossy be so
dense? Why should she play second fiddle to Flossy? Why should Flossy
take for granted that she did not intend to keep pace with her? Keep
pace, indeed, when, if circumstances would only shape themselves a
little differently, she would be able speedily to outstrip her volatile
friend in the struggle for social preferment.

Not unnaturally their friendship had been somewhat strained by the
simmering of these thoughts in Selma's bosom. If a recipient of
confidences becomes tart or cold, ingenuous prattle is apt to flow less
spontaneously. Though Flossy was completely self-absorbed, and
consequently glad to pour out her satisfaction into a sympathetic ear,
she began to realize that there was something amiss with her friend
which mere conscientious disapproval of her own frivolities did not
adequately explain. It troubled her somewhat, for she liked the
Littletons and was proud of her acquaintance with them. However, she was
conscious of having acquitted herself toward them with liberality, and,
especially now that her social vista was widening, she was not disposed
at first to analyze too deeply the cause of the lack of sympathy between
them. That is, she was struck by Selma's offish manner and frigid
silences, but forgot them until they were forced upon her attention the
next time they met. But as her friend continued to receive her bubbling
announcements with stiff indifference, Flossy, in her perplexity, began
to bend her acute mental faculties more searchingly on her idol. A fixed
point of view will keep a shrine sacred forever, but let a worshipper's
perspective be altered, and it is astonishing how different the features
of divinity will appear. Flossy had worshipped with the eyes of faith.
Now that her adoration was rejected without apparent cause, her
curiosity was piqued, and she sought an interpretati