The Metropolis

There was a moment's pause, preceding a remark by their young lady visitor. " I've an idea," said she, "that the real reason she never got into Society was that she was fond of her old uncle."

And Montague gave a short glance at the speaker, who was gazing fixedly into the ring. He heard the Major chuckle, and he thought that he heard Betty Wyman give a little sniff. A few moments later the young lady arose, and with some remark to Mrs. Venable about how well

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her costume became her, she passed on out of the box.

"Who is that?" asked Montague.

"That," the Major answered, "that's Laura Hegan — Jim Hegan's daughter."

Oh!" said Montague, and caught his. breath. Jim Hegan — Napoleon of finance—• czar of a gigantic system of railroads, and the power behind the political thrones of many states.

"His only daughter,too," the Major added. " Gad, what a juicy morsel for somebody !"

"Well, she'll make him pay for all he gets, whoever he is!" retorted Betty, vindictively.

"You don't like her.?" inquired Montague; and Betty replied promptly, "I do not!"

"Her daddy and Betty's granddaddy are always at swords' points," put in Major Venable.

"I have nothing to do with my granddaddy's quarrels," said the young lady. "I have troubles enough of my own."

"What is the matter with Miss Hegan.?'* asked Montague, laughing.

"She's an idea she's too good for the world she lives in," said Betty. "When you're with her, you feel as you will before the judgment throne."

"Undoubtedly a disturbing feeling," put in the Major.

"She never hands you anything but you find a pin hidden in it," v/ent on the girl. 'All her remarks are meant to be read backward, and my life is too short to straighten out their kinks. I like a person to say what they mean in plain English, and then I can either like them or not/'

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"Mostly not," said the Major, grimly; and added, "Anyway, she's beautiful."

"Perhaps," said the other. "So is the Jung-frau; but I prefer something more comfortable."

"What's Chappie de Peyster beauing her around for.''" asked Mrs. Venable. "Is he a candidate .P"

"Maybe his debts are troubling him again," said Mistress Betty. "He must be in a desperate plight. — Did you hear how Jack Audubon proposed to her.?"

"Did Jack propose.?" exclaimed the Major.

"Of course he did," said the girl. "His brother told me." Then, for Montague's benefit, she explained, " Jack Audubon is the Major's nephew, and he's a bookworm, and spends all his time collecting scarabs."

"What did he say to her.?" asked the Major, highly amused.

"Why," said Betty, "he told her he knew she didn't love him; but also she knew that he didn't care anything about her money, and she might like to marry him so that other men would let her alone."

" Gad !" cried the old gentleman, slapping his knee. " A masterpiece !"

" Does she have so many suitors.? " asked Montague ; and the Major replied, " My dear boy — she'll have a hundred million dollars some day!"

At this point Oliver put in appearance, and Betty got up and went for a stroll with him; then Montague asked for light upon Miss Hegan's remark.

"What she said is perfectly true," replied the

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Major; "only it riled Betty. There's many a gallant dame cruising the social seas who has stowed her old relatives out of sight in the hold."

"What's the matter with old Simpkins?" asked the other.

"Just a queer boy," was the reply. "He has. a big pile, and his one joy in life is the divine Yvette. It is really he who makes her ridiculous — he has a regular press agent for her, a chap he loads up with jewellery and checks whenever he gets her picture into the papers."

The Major paused a moment to greet some acquaintance, and then resumed the conversation^ Apparently he could gossip in this intimate fashion about any person whom you named. Old Simpkins had been very poor as a boy, it appeared, and he had never got over the memory of it. Miss Yvette spent fifty thousand at a clip for Paris gowns; but every day her old uncle would save up the lumps of sugar which came with the expensive lunch he had brought to his office. And when he had several pounds he would send them home by messenger!

This conversation gave Montague a new sense of the complicatedness of the world into-which he had come. Miss Simpkins was "impossible"; and yet there was — for instance—-that Mrs. Landis whom he had met at Mrs. Winnie Duval's. He had met her several times at the show; and he heard the Major and his sister-in-law chuckling over a paragraph in the society journal, to the effect that Mrs. Virginia van Rensselaer Landis had just returned from a successful hunting-trip in the far West. He did

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