women were so perfectly dressed. But only for a minute, for she soon became aware of her own dress, perfect also, gray chiffon-cloth, untrimmed, undecorated, with gray shoes to match. How wonderful of Cicely to have foreseen, and to have provided! How easy to assume the old poise again, inside the protecting armor of a lovely gown. Her heart was fluttering, but she bowed, quietly acknowledging the introductions, one after another, with her old grace and charm.
The 'Outsiders' (for it appeared these four couples completed the select group) accepted her almost immediately as one of them. Not only, as she imagined, because Mr. Dallinger had introduced her 'as an old acquaintance,' but because they recognized her as one of their kind.
The next day, when she told them that she came from outside Boston, Mr. Palmer had exclaimed, 'Good! another recruit for the Outsiders! Will you join us?'
And the very first night, scarcely ten minutes after her introduction, they had asked her to dance, to play bridge. She had begged off. What would they think of her hands? 'And I really haven't done either for years,' frankly she had confessed. So instead they had all gone to the moving-pictures in the casino, and afterward to the grill.
It was nearly twelve o'clock when Sheilah, who for
