social climber. The two Simms children (little girls) had been
taught all the social graces of the day--to pose, smirk, genuflect,
and the like, to the immense delight of their elders. The nurse
in charge was in uniform, the governess was a much put-upon person.
Mrs. Simms had a high manner, eyes for those above her only, a
serene contempt for the commonplace world in which she had to dwell.

During the first dinner at which she entertained the Cowperwoods
Mrs. Simms attempted to dig into Aileen's Philadelphia history,
asking if she knew the Arthur Leighs, the Trevor Drakes, Roberta
Willing, or the Martyn Walkers. Mrs. Simms did not know them
herself, but she had heard Mrs. Merrill speak of them, and that
was enough of a handle whereby to swing them. Aileen, quick on
the defense, ready to lie manfully on her own behalf, assured her
that she had known them, as indeed she had--very casually--and
before the rumor which connected her with Cowperwood had been
voiced abroad. This pleased Mrs. Simms.

"I must tell Nellie," she said, referring thus familiarly to Mrs.
Merrill.

Aileen feared that if this sort of thing continued it would soon
be all over town that she had been a mistress before she had been
a wife, that she had been the unmentioned corespondent in the
divorce suit, and that Cowperwood had been in prison. Only his
wealth and her beauty could save her; and would they?

One night they had been to dinner at the Duane Kingslands', and
Mrs. Bradford Canda had asked her, in what seemed a very significant
way, whether she had ever met her friend Mrs. Schuyler Evans, of