She had also tried to patronize both Richard and Melinda, taking the latter with her to the theater and to a reception, and trying to cultivate her for the sake of poor Ethie, who was obliged to associate with her and people like her.

Melinda, however, did not need Mrs.Van Buren's patronage.

Her uncle was a man of wealth and mark, who stood high in Washington, where he had been before.

His niece could not lack attention, and ere the season was over the two rival belles at Washington were Mrs.Frank Van Buren, from Boston, and Miss Melinda Jones, from Iowa.
But prosperity did not spoil Melinda, and James Markham's chances were quite as good when, dressed in pink silk, with camelias in her hair, she entertained some half-dozen judges and M.C.'s as when in brown delaine and magenta ribbons she danced a quadrille at some "quilting bee out West." She saw the difference, however, between men of cultivation and those who had none, and began to understand the cause of Ethelyn's cold, proud looks when surrounded by Richard's family.

She began also silently to watch and criticise Richard, comparing him with other men of equal brain, and thinking how, if she were his wife, she would go to work to correct his manners.