to sit in their stocking-feet at times, and frequently do so when
certain that the princesses-in-waiting and lady companions of the bath
are not looking. The telephone interrupted Carlisle twice, but she
toasted her arched and silken little insteps well, read three stories,
and thought that one of them was quite sweet. Where she got her hands
and feet she often wondered. They were so clearly neither Heth nor
Thompson. By this time her unwearied mother had gone out to "get in"
three or four calls; also an important Charities engagement at Mrs.
Byrd's, where Carlisle was to call for her in the car at five o'clock
_sharp_, for their visit to the Bellingham. Carlisle now became
conscious of a void, and ate five chocolates from a large adjacent box
of them, the gift of J. Forsythe Avery. Then she yawned delicately, and
picked up "Sonnets from the Portuguese" (by Mrs. Browning); for she, it
must be remembered, had a well-rounded ideal, and believed that it was
your duty to cultivate your mind. Life isn't all parties and beaux, as
she sometimes remarked to Mattie Allen....

There came a knock upon the door, breaking the thread of culture. The
seneschal Moses entered, announcing callers, ladies, in the
drawing-room. Carlisle sighed; recalled herself to actuality. After
glancing at the cards, she conceded the injudiciousness of saying that
she was out, and told Moses to announce that she would be down in a
moment. She kept the callers waiting twenty moments, however, while, in
her own room, she made ready for the street. She was donning a hat which
in shape and size was not unlike a man's derby; it was of black velvet,
lined under the brim with old-blue, and edged with a piping of
dark-brown fur. At a certain point in or on it, there stuck up two stiff
straight blue plumes. The hat was simply absurd, wildly laughable and
ridiculous, up to the moment when she got it on; then it was seen that
it had a certain merit after all. It was a calling-costume (as one