A Daughter of the Vine

once more led him onward. "What a pity that such a beautiful girl should be so poor. But she'll probably marry any one of these incipient millionaires she wants."

"Poor?" cried Hastings. "Oh, her get-up. She affects to despise dress--or does. God forbid that I should presume to understand what goes on behind those blue masks. Her father is a wealthy and distinguished citizen. Her mother inherited a hundred thousand acres from one of the old grandees. What do you think of her?"

"Her methods are original and entertaining, to say the least. Does she never--converse?"

"When she has something to say; she's a remarkable woman. That must be Miss Randolph. Her crowd is always the densest."

As Thorpe was presented to Nina Randolph he forgot that he was a student of heredity. He had never seen so radiant and triumphant a being. She seemed to him, in that first moment, to symbolize the hope and joy and individualism of the New World. Small, like her father, she was perfectly modelled, from he