think that I would offer you a heroine who was NOT in society? You
forget that I am from Boston!"

"Of course, of course! I understand that any heroine of your
acquaintance must be in society. But I thought--I didn't know--but
for the moment--Saratoga seems to be so tremendously mixed; and Mr.
March says there is no society here: But if she is from Boston--"

"I didn't say she was from Boston, Mr. Kendricks."

"Oh, I beg your pardon!"

"She is from De Witt Point," said Mrs. March, and she apparently
enjoyed his confusion, no less than my bewilderment at the course
she was taking.

I was not going to be left behind, though, and I said: "I
discovered this heroine myself, Kendricks, and if there is to be any
giving away--"

"Now, Basil!"

"I am going to do it. Mrs. March would never have cared anything
about her if it hadn't been for me. I can't let her impose on you.
This heroine is no more in society than she is from Boston. That is
the trouble with her. She has come here for society, and she can't
find any."

"Oh, that was what you were hinting at this morning," said
Kendricks. "I thought it a pure figment of the imagination."