Washington seemed to Mary Rose, it was not very
different from any other large city apartment house where people lived
side by side for months, for years, sometimes, without becoming
acquainted. It was not worth while, some said; neighbors change too
often. You don't know who people are, others thought. In such close
quarters one cannot afford to know undesirable people. The advantage
of an apartment house is that you don't have to know your neighbors,
murmured a third group. Consequently the tenants came and went and one
could count on a hand and have fingers to spare, the few who exchanged
greetings when they met on the stairs.

This was an appalling state of affairs to country-bred Mary Rose, who
had been brought up in a friendly atmosphere. In Mifflin everyone knew
everyone and was interested in what happened. When joy came to a
neighbor there was general rejoicing, and when sorrow touched a family
there was a universal sympathy, while the little between pleasures and
perplexities lost nothing and gained considerably by the knowledge that
they were shared with others. Mary Rose was intensely interested in
this new phase of life, if she could not understand it. It amazed her
when she counted how many people were over her small head.

"In Mifflin I didn't have anyone but God and the angels," she told Aunt
Kate, "but here there's the Schunemans and the Rawsons and the Blakes
and Mr. Jarvis and Miss Adams and Mrs. Matchan and Miss Proctor and Mr.
Wilcox and his friend. In Mifflin we lived side by side, you know, and
not up and down. We ought all to be friends when we live so close
together, shouldn't we?" wistfully.

Aunt Kate tried her best to tell her that they were all friends, but
she couldn't do it.

"What's the good of tellin' her folks are friendly when they don't look
friendly? Seems if a body can't frown with her face an' smile with her
heart at the same time. An' frowns are just as catchin' as germs. You
naturally don't pat a growlin' dog an' so you don't smile at a frownin'
person. I've al'ys seen more frowns 'n smiles in the Washington."

But Mary Rose did her best to make friends, because that was what she
had done always and because that was the only way she knew how to live.
And one by one her unconscious little efforts to unlock the gates of
reserve that suspicion and indifference and consciousness had placed
over the hearts and lips of the people she was thrown with began to
make som