Think of life in one of two small rooms with a Theresa Howland!" Adelaide had fallen, as far as could one of her generous and tolerant disposition, into Henrietta's most infectious habit of girding at everyone humorously--the favorite pastime of the idle who are profoundly discontented with themselves.

By the time Mrs.Hastings left her at the lofty imported gates of Villa d'Orsay, they had done the subject of Theresa full justice, and Adelaide entered the house with that sense of self-contempt which cannot but come to any decent person after meting out untempered justice to a fellow-mortal.

This did not last, however; the pleasure in the realization that Ross did not care for Theresa and did care for herself was too keen.

As the feminine test of feminine success is the impression a woman makes upon men, Adelaide would have been neither human nor woman had she not been pleased with Ross's discreet and sincerely respectful, and by no means deliberate or designing disclosure.
It was not the proof of her power to charm the male that had made her indignant at herself.

"How weak we women are!" she said to herself, trying to assume a penitence she could not make herself feel.