each one would take in the discussion. The Duke of
course would be their principal theme; though the
appearance in Fifth Avenue of a golden-haired lady in a
small canary-coloured brougham with a pair of black
cobs (for which Beaufort was generally thought
responsible) would also doubtless be thoroughly gone
into. Such "women" (as they were called) were few in
New York, those driving their own carriages still fewer,
and the appearance of Miss Fanny Ring in Fifth Avenue
at the fashionable hour had profoundly agitated
society. Only the day before, her carriage had passed
Mrs. Lovell Mingott's, and the latter had instantly rung
the little bell at her elbow and ordered the coachman to
drive her home. "What if it had happened to Mrs. van
der Luyden?" people asked each other with a shudder.
Archer could hear Lawrence Lefferts, at that very hour,
holding forth on the disintegration of society.

He raised his head irritably when his sister Janey
entered, and then quickly bent over his book (Swinburne's
"Chastelard"--just out) as if he had not seen
her. She glanced at the writing-table heaped with books,
opened a volume of the "Contes Drolatiques," made
a wry face over the archaic French, and sighed: "What
learned things you read!"

"Well--?" he asked, as she hovered Cassandra-like
before him.

"Mother's very angry."