CHAPTER X.
Mary "came out" the winter after her graduation.
If she had been left to herself she would have dispensed with the ceremony quite as cheerfully as she had dispensed with Miss Parsons' School for Young Ladies.

But in the first place her aunts were adamant, and in the second place they were assisted by Helen.

Helen hadn't been going to finishing school for nothing.

She knew the value of a proper social introduction.
Indeed it was her secret ambition to outshine her cousin--an ambition which was at once divined by her two aunts.

Whereupon they groomed Mary to such good purpose that I doubt if Society ever looked upon a lovelier debutante.
She was dressed in chiffon, wore the Spencer pearls, and carried herself with such unconscious charm that more than one who danced with her that night felt a rapping on the door of his heart and heard the voice of love exclaiming "Let me in!" There was one young man in particular who showed her such attention that the matrons either smiled or frowned at each other.