“Yes, indeed, they were as entertaining as possible, and gave me ideas I had never thought of by myself; but then they were graybeards of fifty. I was thinking of younger men whom one might”—and Mildred hesitated and looked out of the window, blushing. “Why don’t you finish it,” I said mischievously; “whom one might marry?” But Mildred only laughed and said nothing. CHAPTER VIII. One morning at breakfast, as we were sipping our chocolate, Mildred cried out, “Oh, Ruby, I forgot to tell you! I am going to have a symposium here to-night.” “A symposium!—of whom? and what is it all to be about? Let me hear your latest scheme,” I queried, laying down my black Hamburgs and looking up at her. Her face was very bright and animated, and the scheme, whatever it was, evidently interested her considerably. Mildred leaned back in her chair and twirled the beautiful ruby ring which she always wore. This ring had been her sister’s, and was an heirloom; she rarely wore any other jewels, and when she was preoccupied she had a habit of turning it round and round on her finger. “I mean,” said Mildred, “to get together all the wisdom on the tenement house question that is available in New York and Brooklyn, and see what the consensus of opinion is; and I am going to have my amanuensis take notes for future reference. You know I have some coöperative theories of my own in regard to the matter, and I wish to ascertain what these practical workers think of them.” “Whom have you invited?” I inquired, beginning to be interested. “Oh, Professor Felix Adler, for one. He built those tenements that we saw the other day down on Cherry Street, you remember, and he is also very much interested in manual training. Then there is Mr. Pratt, who founded that great Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, with all kinds of industrial training and a free library and reading-room. Then—let me see—I have invited Mr. Barnard of the Five Points House of Industry, Mrs. Alice Wellington Rollins, who wrote ‘Uncle Tom’s Tenement,’ Mr. Charles L. Brace of the Children’s Aid Society, most of the agents of the model tenement houses that I have visited, several of the lady visitors in the charity organizations, and one or two architects.” As it proved, however, not all who were invited came, but there were enough to comfortably fill our pretty parlor. There were Jews and Gentiles, radicals and high-churchmen, all interested in the same subject, and many of them meeting each other for the first time. Mildred had chocolate and cakes and fruit served, and then proceeded to business in the dignified, quiet way which so well became her.