"Mrs. Trescott does not know Mrs. Van Horn."
"Why, Letty, what do you mean? Mrs. Van Horn says that family are her most intimate friends; she is always talking about them."
"I know that. I heard all she said the day we called there. I did not believe it then, because I know it is not Mrs. Trescott's habit to form such sudden and violent intimacies with any one. Still, I did not wish to say any thing till I knew certainly. So, yesterday, when Mrs. Trescott was here, I asked her if she was acquainted with Mrs. Van Horn."
"Well," said Agnes, eagerly, "and what did she say?"
"She said she believed she had seen her," replied Letty, laughing. "The people who rented the brown-stone house took boarders, and she had heard Mrs. Van Horn mentioned as one of them. At first she thought that was all she knew; but, when I described her, she said she thought Mrs. Van Horn called one day to inquire about the rent of one of Mr. Trescott's houses on the Avenue."
"Well, I declare!" ejaculated Agnes. "So all that was made up! Why, she told me only last night that she had taken a long walk with Miss Charlotte Dalton, and had gone there to dinner."
"Worse and worse!" said Letty, laughing, "Why, Agnes, Miss Dalton has not walked farther than across the road to Mrs. Trescott's since I knew her; and that is seven years this fall. She was hurt somehow in the riding-school when she was quite a little girl, and has never walked since. It is only at her best that she can go as far as Mrs. Trescott's."
"Well, if ever! I thought there was something odd about her always going out of church before the sermon."
"Yes; she cannot sit up long on a seat with a straight back. But you would be surprised to see how much work she accomplishes. She has a Sunday-school class,—only the girls always come to her at home—"
"But to think Mrs. Van Horn should have told such a story!" interrupted Agnes. "What do you suppose she could be thinking of?"