Waterbury evening Democrat., 1908-11-16

when they came to say How do you do;" to her She screwed up her eyes till they looked hard and sharp enough to go through you Ike thin knife or more like a long, slender hatpir Jabbing your head. and having waited an instant before returning their greet ing, slowly answered; Very we'll thank you. Yes. am going home rather early. I'm due at Newport a' soon as possibe;' heu fingered he' open book, which she hadn't peeped into before. and made . little, just noticeable gesture with ter lorgnette
 Then the poor people were too much crushed to stop and try to talk to Miss Woodburn. though she always looked at them sweetly, as if she would make up for her cousin being a dragon If sht could.
 By and by. somebody else would sal up, perhaps not half as nice to look d as the one who had gone. But 10, Mrs Stuyvesant-Knox would be suddenl! transformed She would smile ant hold out her hand. To their How dt you do" she would respond How dt you do?' and though l don't thinl she's really much interested in any one but herself she would ask where they had been, what they had been do ing and how 1t happened they were going back so soon. The next thing . she would say to me: Betty, dear, should like you and Mrs. So-and-so t know each other as I hope you'll meet again, while you're staying with me Lady Betty Bulkeley. etc, etc. won der If you have ever met her brother the Duke of Stanforth, and her cousin the Marquis of Loveland. over in Lon don?"
 Loveland would have had a fit if he could have heard her, for of course al home only the lower middle classes of such people hurl marquis title al his head in that fashion, but sup pose foreigners, unless they've been ir England a long time, don't know the difference
 When got a chance. asked Sally Woodburn how Mrs. Stuyvasant-KnoX made her distinctions In snubbina some people and preening herself to others.
 My deah," said Sally Q'm to cal her Sally" now; it's been understood between us for some time,, my deah you're a poor, innocent child, and reckon you've been brought up ir darkness, without even so much as hearing of the Four Hundred?
 What are the Four Hundred? Arc they a kind of light brigade. like the Six Hundred:' I asked. "Or is it a sort of governing body like-like the Council of Three?"
 She laughed so much at this, with her charsning. yelvety laugh, that grew quite nervous. for it's embar. rassing to have said something funny when you've meant to be rather intel ligent. But soon she took. pity on me You perfect love- she said. that's really two sweet. It deserves to be put in Life, or something. And yet you're not so far wrong. when one comes to think of it. The Four Hun, dred is kind of governing body, only l believe it's really reduced to Two Hundred now. They govern New York. and Newport. and Lennox. and Bar Harbor. and several other places which are considered very nice and important"
 "Oh. fAre they Republicans or Dem crats:" I inquired, sure that really was being intelligent at last. for I'd heard Stan say that in America the Republican party was rather like our Conservatives, and the Democrats like our Liberals. and I'd remembered. be cause believe should he very much interested in politics if only l under stood more about them. But Sally seemed 10 think that question funny too.
 ''They can be either. my poor lamb she exclaimed. and they can be al most anything else they like if only they're just awfully. dreadfully rich and can manage to scrape up family crest, It used to be the crest that counted with the man who invented the Four Hundred, but since his day that idea has got buried under heaps and heaps of gold. and pearls and dia- monds. especially pearls. In those places l was telling you about you don't exist unless you're in the Four Hundred, which is now being sifted down to Two Hundred, and will prob ably be Seventy-five in year or two. You may have the bluest blood in America Tn your veins: you may be simply smeared with ancestors. but if you haven't managed to push forward in clever, indescribable way, neither they nor you will ever be noticed, and your gray hairs will go down to the grave in the wrong set. Now do you understand why my cousin Katherine makes narrow eyes for some people and broad smiles for othersr'
 Wees. l suppose do" answered. ~Only-we are quite different at home. I haven't been about at all yet, but know: because some things are in the air. How did Mrs. Stuyvesant- Knox ever have the poor wrong setters for acquaintances. though:"
 Because shed kill me if she heard thisI she has only lately got into the right set herself and after trouble enough to give an ordinary woman nervous prostration. That kind Of thing does give it to lot of women especially if they fail. But Cousin K -nt