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She reaped the reward to which disinterestedness is entitled, and found an agreeable co, critical and "foreign"--for even Mrs Peniston, though she occasionally went abroad, had the fairl showed a pliancy, which, to a ht have been less reassuring than the open selfishness of youth Misfortune hadher, and a pliable substance is less easy to break than a stiff one

Mrs Peniston, however, did not suffer fro advantage of her aunt's good nature She was in truth grateful for the refuge offered her: Mrs Peniston's opulent interior was at least not externally dingy But dinginess is a quality which assuuises; and Lily soon found that it was as latent in the expensive routine of her aunt's life as in the makeshift existence of a continental pension

Mrs Peniston was one of the episodical persons who for of life It was impossible to believe that she had herself ever been a focus of activities The randmother had been a Van Alstyne This connection with the well-fed and industrious stock of early New York revealed itself in the glacial neatness of Mrs Peniston's drawing-rooed to the class of old New Yorkers who have always lived well, dressed expensively, and done little else; and to these inherited obligations Mrs Peniston faithfully conformed She had always been a looker-on at life, and her mind resembled one of those little mirrors which her Dutch ancestors were accustomed to affix to their upper s, so that froht see as happening in the street

Mrs Peniston was the owner of a country-place in New Jersey, but she had never lived there since her husband's death--a remote event, which appeared to dwell in herpoint in the personal reminiscences that formed the staple of her conversation She was a woman who remembered dates with intensity, and could tell at a -room curtains had been renewed before or after Mr Peniston's last illness

Mrs Peniston thought the country lonely and trees daainst such contingencies she frequented the -places, where she installed herself ih the uardian, it soon became clear to Lily that she was to enjoy only the ; and, though far froed theard as opportunities She sighed to think what her ies would have accomplished, had they been coupled with Mrs Peniston's resources Lily had abundant energy of her own, but it was restricted by the necessity of adapting herself to her aunt's habits She saw that at all costs she must keep Mrs Peniston's favour till, as Mrs Bart would have phrased it, she could stand on her own legs Lily had no abond life of the poor relation, and to adapt herself to Mrs Peniston she had, to soree, to assume that lady's passive attitude She had fancied at first that it would be easy to draw her aunt into the whirl of her own activities, but there was a static force in Mrs Peniston against which her niece's efforts spent the her into active relation with life was like tugging at a piece of furniture which has been screwed to the floor She did not, indeed, expect Lily to reuardian's indulgence for the volatility of youth