shame the provoked spontaneity of any spring in Saratoga."

"Well, did he say that he was going to leave them here?"

"He would like to do it--yes. He was very sweet and simple and
kind, too, Isabel. He complained bitterly of the goddess, and all
but said she sulked."

"Why, I don't know," said my wife. "I think, considering, that she
is rather amiable. She brightened up more and more."

"That was prosperity, or the hope of it, my dear. Nothing illumines
us like the prospect of pleasant things. She took you for society
smiling upon her, and of course she smiled back. But it's only the
first smile of prosperity that cheers. If it keeps on smiling it
ends by making us dissatisfied again. When people are getting into
society they are very glad; when they have got in they seem to be
rather gloomy. We mustn't let these things go too far. Now that
you've got your friends in good humour, the right way is to drop
them--to cut them dead when you meet them, to look the other way.
That will send them home perfectly radiant."

"Nonsense! I am going to do all I can for them. What do you think
we can do? They haven't the first idea how to amuse themselves
here. It's a miracle they ever got that dress the girl is wearing.
They just made a bold dash because they saw it in a dressmaker's
window the first day, and she had to have something. It's killingly
becoming to her; but I don't believe they know it, and they don't
begin to know how cheap it was: it was simply THROWN away. I'm
going shopping with them in the morning."