d.

"I have been longing to call upon you, but my days and evenings have been
so completely occupied with study, that this is my first bit of recreation
since I came to Boston in the fall, and until I received Miss Dayton's
invitation, I did not know where I might find you."

Then Jotham was presented to Nina who in turn led him to a group of her
friends where, surrounded by a bevy of bright faced girls, he seemed as
much at ease as if his life had consisted of naught but social pleasures.

Randy turned, and meeting Helen's gaze she said,

"It seems to me that Jotham looks like a prince to-night."

"He has a charming manner," said Miss Dayton, "and I have always thought
that he possessed a noble mind, that priceless gift which only One can
give. Coronets can be purchased, but who can barter for true worth?"

In the shadow cast by a statue and leaning against its pedestal, stood
Polly Lawrence, her flushed cheeks vieing with the scarlet gauze which she
wore, a most unpleasant expression upon her small face, while her nervous
fingers plucked to pieces a red rose which she had taken from her bodice
and she angrily tapped the floor with her satin slipper. And what had
occurred to mar the evening's pleasure for Polly Lawrence?

Merely the fact that she was not the only girl in the room to receive
attention, and also that she had chosen a gaudy costume for the occasion,
and was conscious that her choice had been unwise.

Shallow by nature, and without keen perception, she yet possessed
sufficient good sense to see that she had not impressed her friends with
the magnificence of her apparel, and her vanity received a thrust when a
friend said to her,

"How sweet Randy Weston looks in her white gown and ribbons! One would
know that she would never wear a gaudy dress."

Polly had made no reply, but in exasperation she thought,

"Every one admires Randy. I do believe that they would think she looked
sweet in white calico."

There was, after all, a bit of excuse for Polly. Reared by her aunt, a
woman with a character as shallow as that of her niece, Polly's vanity had
never been curbed, rather it had been encouraged. She was allowed to
choose her own costumes, her aunt rarely venturing a suggestion; and the
milliners and dressmakers, reading the girl's vain character, encouraged
Polly to purchase that which was most expensive, regardless as to whether
it might be suitable or becoming.

Furs, designed apparently for a