is, whether I ought to go back on my fellow-hands."

"Oh, but Mrs. _Wilmington_!" said Mrs. Munger, with intense
deprecation, "that's such a very different thing. You were not brought up
to it; it was just temporary; and besides--"

"And besides, there was Mr. Wilmington, I know. He was very opportune. I
might have been a hand at this moment if Mr. Wilmington had not come along
and invited me to be a head--the head of his house. But I don't know,
Annie, whether I oughtn't to remember my low beginnings."

"I suppose we all like to be consistent," answered Annie aimlessly,
uneasily.

"Yes," Mrs. Munger broke in; "but they were not your beginnings, Mrs.
Wilmington; they were your incidents--your accidents."

"It's very pretty of you to say so, Mrs. Munger," drawled Mrs. Wilmington.
"But I guess I must oppose the little invited dance and supper, on
principle. We all like to be consistent, as Annie says--even if we're
inconsistent in the attempt," she added, with a laugh.

"Very well, then," exclaimed Mrs. Munger, "we'll _drop_ them. As I
said to Miss Kilburn on our way here, 'if Mrs. Wilmington is opposed to
them, we'll drop them.'"

"Oh, am I such an influential person?" said Mrs. Wilmington, with a shrug.
"It's rather awful--isn't it, Annie?"

"Not at all!" Mrs. Munger answered for Annie. "We've just been talking the