“Then you think I have deteriorated,” she said, with a superior smile.

“I think of you as the most conscientious woman I ever met.  It was only natural that you should be spurred by our neighbors, the Williamses, to make a better showing socially before the world.  I have been glad to see you emulous up to a certain point.  You must realize though, that we cannot keep pace with them, even if we so desire.  Already they are in the public eye.  He appears to have made considerable money, and his views on the stock-market are given prominence by the press.  He and his wife are beginning to be recognized by people who were ignorant of their existence four years ago.  You told me last week that Mrs. Williams had attended one of the fashionable balls, and I saw in yesterday’s newspaper a description of her toilette at another.  It begins to look as if, in a few years more, their ambition might be realized, and the doors of the Morton Price mansion open wide to admit this clever country cousin to the earthly paradise.  It must be evident to you, Selma, that very shortly we shall see only the dust of their chariot-wheels in the dim social distance.  Williams told me to-day that he has bought a house near the park.”

“He has bought a new house?  They are going to move?” exclaimed Selma, sitting up straight, and with a fierce light in her eyes.

“Yes.  He was going home to tell his wife.  It seems that they have been talking vaguely of moving for some time.  An acquaintance happened to offer him a house, and Williams closed the bargain on the spot in his customary chain-lightning style.  I shall be sorry to have them go on some accounts, for they have always been friendly, and you seem fond of the wife, but we shall find it easier, perhaps, when they are gone, to live according to our own ideas.”

“Flossy has not been quite so nice lately,” said Selma; “I am afraid she is disposed to put on airs.”

“Her head may have been turned by her success.  She has a kind heart, but a giddy brain in spite of its cleverness.”

“Flossy has been getting on, of course.  But so are we getting on.  Why should they be recognized, as you call it, any more than we?  In time, I mean.  Not in the same way, perhaps, since you don’t approve of the sort of things—­”

“Since I don’t approve?  Why, Selma, surely—­”

“Since we don’t approve, then.  I only mean that Gregory Williams has shown initiative, has pushed ahead, and is—­er—­the talk of the town.  I expect you to be successful, too.  Is there any reason on earth why the door of the Morton Prices should open wide to her and not to me?”

“I suppose not, if—­if you wish it.”

She made a gesture of impatience and gazed at him a moment with an imperious frown, then suddenly, with the litheness of a cat, she slipped from her chair to the floor at his feet, and leaning against his knee, looked up into his face.