"Didn't she go away quite in a hurry?" he asked. "I hope you haven't offended her," he added, jocosely, to his wife. "Cornelia didn't look a bit offended," said Mrs. Diggs, regarding Claire, or rather her continued blush. "But that means nothing. You didn't quarrel, now, did you, Mrs. Hollister?" "Oh, no," said Claire, still dazed and demoralized. "She asked me to visit her in town; she was very urgent that I should do so." "You don't really tell me such a thing!" exclaimed Mrs. Diggs. "You've no idea how prodigious an honor she was conferring. It's like decorating you with the order of St. Something--actually it is." "I'm afraid I failed to value it in that way," replied Claire, who was recovering herself. "Of course you did. You haven't yet taken in the full enormity of Cornelia's importance. You can't do it until you see her surrounded by her own proper atmosphere--with her foot on her native heath, so to speak. Then you'll understand the massive condescension of to-night." "I think I would just as lief not understand it," laughed Hollister, with his characteristic play of gentle humor. "It doesn't repay you to climb these _very_ big mountains. Everybody says that there's very little to see after you've got to the tops of them." Mrs. Diggs echoed his laugh. She was looking at Claire, however, with her bright, black, restless eyes. "I think your wife may want to climb," she said. "I'll be her guide, if she'll let me. There's a very good view from the summit of cousin Cornelia. You can look down on a lot of smaller peaks." Claire shook her head. She had got her natural color again, but not her natural manner; she spoke in a tone of preoccupied seriousness that did not harmonize with her light words. "I shouldn't like to fall down one of her glaciers and be lost," she said. "Oh, there's no fear of that," cried Mrs. Diggs. "You're too sure-footed." Somewhat later that evening, when they were alone together, Hollister asked his wife: "Did that Mrs. Van Horn say anything that hurt you, Claire?" "Oh, no. What made you think so, Herbert?" "I.... Well, perhaps I only fancied it.... You had known her brother, hadn't you?" "Yes. He was a good deal at the Bergemanns' last Spring. He went to Europe afterward. I suppose that was why she wanted to know me better." Claire said this with a fine composure. She was standing before her dressing-table, disengaging the roses from her breast. Hollister stole up behind her and clasped her in his arms, setting his face close beside hers, and looking with a full smile at their twin reflection, which the mirror now gave to both. "So you've got among the great people at last, little struggler," he said; "you've begun to be a great person yourself." He kissed her on the temple, still keeping his arms about her. "I suppose you'll make quick work of it now. I'm glad, for your sake--you know I am! You're bound to succeed. I shall be awfully proud of you."