When, therefore, the dinner was determined upon, Mrs.Dillingham's card of invitation was the first one addressed.
She was a widow and alone.

She complemented Mr.Belcher, who was also alone.
Exactly the position Mrs.Dillingham occupied in society, it would be hard to define.

Everybody invited her, and yet everybody, without any definite reason, considered her a little "off color." She was beautiful, she was accomplished, she talked wonderfully well, she was _au fait_ in art, literature, society.

She was superficially religious, and she formed the theater of the struggle of a black angel and a white one, neither of whom ever won a complete victory, or held whatever advantage he gained for any considerable length of time.

Nothing could be finer than Mrs.Dillingham in her fine moods; nothing coarser when the black angel was enjoying one of his victories, and the white angel had sat down to breathe.