Both ladies rose with grave dignity, conferred upon Laura a formal invitation to call, aid then retired from the conference.

Laura remained in the drawing-room and left them to pilot themselves out of the house--an inhospitable thing, it seemed to her, but then she was following her instructions.

She stood, steeped in reverie, a while, and then she said: "I think I could always enjoy icebergs--as scenery but not as company." Still, she knew these two people by reputation, and was aware that they were not ice-bergs when they were in their own waters and amid their legitimate surroundings, but on the contrary were people to be respected for their stainless characters and esteemed for their social virtues and their benevolent impulses.

She thought it a pity that they had to be such changed and dreary creatures on occasions of state.
The first call Laura received from the other extremity of the Washington aristocracy followed close upon the heels of the one we have just been describing.

The callers this time were the Hon.