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52 mystery rests. One thing, by the way, I will say, in the way of prediction: after you have gone through a season in New York and seen the best it has to offer in the matter of the masculine element, you will go back home with an appreciation of the supreme charm of your next-door neighbor which you never had before. I'd venture a good deal on that."

"Well, wouldn't that be a happy state of affairs?" said Stella, lightly. "It is always a fortunate thing to be satisfied with one's surroundings."

"I can't fancy Charles Hobart in that life," Mrs. Lacy went on, musingly. "How does he look? What does he wear?"

"He looks extremely well and healthy, though he is considerably bronzed," said Stella, "and he wears, for example, a blue flannel shirt and knee-breeches, with long blue yarn stockings and low-cut shoes, and what is called a Tam O'Shanter cap, or Scotch bonnet."

"What a beauty he must look!" said Mrs. Lacy, enthusiastically. "I hadn't thought of him in that costume, and his figure is so straight and strong that it would suit him perfectly."

"I don't know about his being a beauty," said Stella, feeling resentful at the term, "but he certainly looks uncommonly well in his prairie dress; and you've no idea how he works!"

"Works, indeed!" said Mrs. Lacy, scornfully. "Doing the part of an Irish laborer! I've no patience with such folly! But come; we are wasting our time in discussing that benighted young man. We must dress and go out. The dress-maker must be hurried with your work, for several invitations have already come that I mean you to accept; and since you've chosen to turn your back upon such attractions at home, I must try and make it up to you."

The acceptance of the invitations alluded to introduced Miss Gray to many new acquaintances and opened before her an ever-widening perspective of entertainments and new friends which bade fair to occupy her attention to the last moment and give full employment to her energies and interests. Among all the people whom she met, however, there was only one who seemed likely to become her warm and familiar friend; and this was Mr. Bertrand's little fiancée, Miss Bessie Parke. She had called upon Stella promptly, and the two girls had found so much to talk about, having been both primed for each other beforehand by the young man who was the ardent lover of one and the ardent friend of the other, that they never wearied of each other's society, and, as Stella soon confided to Miss Parke, she found nothing so delightful and joy-giving in all her experience of New York as the charming ready-made friend who was prepared at once to enter into all