Jewel Weed

"You know whom I mean," Lena answered defiantly. "And I consider Mrs.

Appleton a great deal more of a society woman than Mrs. Lenox. At any

rate she goes a great deal more. And she does not neglect her church

duties or her charities, either. She has told me things that she is

doing."

"I should say she does not neglect them," ejaculated Dick. "She has the

art so to regild them that even philanthropy and religion become mere

appendages to society. Does Mrs. Lenox belong to Ram Juna's class,

Lena?"

"No. Mrs. Appleton asked her, but she wrote that though she was

interested in oriental thought, she, personally, found it more

satisfactory to get it by reading. Now wasn't that snobby, Dick?"

"Is it snobbish to choose what really suits you, instead of following a

craze like a sheep woman?"

But Lena shut her lips tightly. If she had not will, she had obstinacy.

She could be resolute in behalf of her realities, luxury, beauty and

self. From the moment when Mrs. Appleton first dawned on her horizon,

she had recognized her ideal. Here was a woman who was at once showy,

fashionable and virtuous. The things that Mrs. Lenox took for granted or

ignored were to her matters of absorbing importance. She magnified the

office of every detail of social conduct and every minutia of society's

"functions". It was worth while to spend a week of soul-fatiguing labor

in order that a tea should be just right; and her preparations were not

made in silence, but with an amount of discussion and red-tape that

filled every crevice of life. She had learned the art of so cramming the

days with trifles that there was no room for the big things and she

could conveniently forget them.

Mrs. Appleton seemed to recognize in Lena the same curious mingling of

deep-down barbaric egotism and love of display, with the longing to be

civilizedly correct. The two were drawn together.

"I like her," said Lena positively.

"I'm sorry," Dick said gently. "I can't say that I do, and I should be

glad if you could find your friends among those I love and respect."

"You needn't try to dictate my friendships," said Lena sharply.

"I did not think of dictating, sweetheart. But when we love each other,

we naturally long for sympathy in all things." Dick was making a brave

effort.

But there was little use in making this appeal to Lena, to whom love was

but a beneficent masculine idiosyncrasy. Dick glanced at her and at his

watch.

"I must be off," he said. "I have an engagement to meet Preston and

plan out our campaign."

"Ours!"

"I'm going to run for alderman of this ward," Dick laughed as Lena

flushed. "Don't you approve?"