There was a coolness and silence in the small circle.
"It was a little matter of our own that we were discussing," said Belle Hadden, loftily.
Kathie turned. She had been in such a happy mood that she was ready for anything. And the two or three experiences in tableaux had left such a delightful memory that she was fain to try it again.
She went to her seat quietly. The voices floated dimly over to her.
"It is mean not to ask her!"
"Girls, I know Mrs. Wilder will notice it, and speak of it."
"You can all do as you like, but if you want Tom, Dick, and Harry, and everybody in them, I beg leave to be excused," said a rather sharp, haughty voice.
"But Kathie Alston isn't—"
"I would as soon have Mary Carson, or any one of that class. They are all alike."
Mary Carson's father had made a fortune in buying and selling iron. She was as coarse as Sarah Strong, without her ambition or good, tender heart.