Page:The time spirit; a romantic tale (IA timespiritromant00snaiiala).pdf/98

 absence of the unforeseen, would discuss the matter privately about twelve o'clock.

"Blanche and Marjorie will have something to look at," was the proud thought in the mind of the young man as the complete Diana, fit to greet Aurora and her courses, emerged from the Otis elevator and took the front of Broad Place with beauty.

"I wish these clothes were a little less smart, and not quite so new," was the first thought in the mind of Diana. "I am sure they are both of them 'Cats,'" [*double spaced quote? P2: closed space]was the thought which followed close upon its heels. Until that hour it had never been her lot to harbor such vain companions. This gay spirit to whom the fairies had been kind had always seemed to breathe a larger, a diviner air. Such self-consciousness shamed her; but after all those two with their old habits and their odd perfection were more to blame than she.

Truth to tell, in the last seventeen hours a subtle, rather horrid change had taken place in her. Up till six o'clock the previous evening she had always been nobly sure of herself, regally self-secure. Always when she had measured herself against others of her age and sex she had had a feeling of having been born to the purple. Somewhere, deep down, she had seemed to have illimitable reserves to draw upon when the creatures of her own orbit had forced her to a reluctant comparison. In all her dealings with her peers, she had felt that she had a great deal in hand. But Marjorie and Blanche, whoever Marjorie and Blanche might be, had seemed to alter all that with a glance of their ironical eyes.

Jack fixed her in the saddle of the tall horse and