Mrs. Standish Tremont’s party occupied, as usual, a prominent place on the Harvard side.  She was so great a factor in the social life at Cambridge that no function could have been a complete success without the stimulus of her presence.  Personally, Mrs. Standish Tremont was one of those women who never grow old; one would no more have thought of hazarding a guess about her age than one would have made a similar calculation about the Goddess of Liberty.  She was perennially young, perennially good-looking, and her entertainments were above reproach.  Some sour old “Grannies” in Boston, who had neither her wit, nor her health, called her Venus Anno Domino, but they were jealous and cynical and their testimony cannot be taken as reliable.

What if she had been splitting gloves applauding college games since the fathers of to-day’s contestants had fought and struggled for similar honors in this very field.  She applauded with such vim, and she gave such delightful dinners afterward, that for the glory of old Harvard it is to be hoped she will continue to applaud and entertain the grandsons of to-day’s victors, even as she had their sires.

It was said by the uncharitable that the secret of the lady’s youth was the fact that she always surrounded herself with young people, their pleasure, interests, entertainments were hers; she never permitted herself to be identified with older people.

To-day, besides several young men who had been out of college for a year or two, she had her husband’s two nieces, the Misses Tremont, young women well known in Boston’s inner circles, her own daughter, a Mrs. Endicott, a widow, and a very beautiful young girl whom she introduced as “My cousin, Miss Moore.”

Miss Moore was the recipient of more attention than she could well handle.  Mrs. Tremont’s cavaliers tried to inveigle her into betting gloves and bon-bons; they reserved their wittiest replica for her, they were her ardent allies in all the merry badinage with which their party whiled away the time waiting for the game to begin.  Miss Moore was getting enough attention to turn the heads of three girls.

At least, that was what her chaperone concluded as she skilfully concealed her dissatisfaction with a radiant smile.  She liked girls to achieve social success when they were under her wing—­it was the next best thing to scoring success on her own account.  But, it was quite a different matter to invite a poor relation half out of charity, half out of pity, and then have her outshine one’s own daughter, and one’s nieces—­the latter being her particular proteges—­girls whom she hoped to assist toward brilliant establishments.  The thought was a disquieting one, the men of their party had been making idiots of themselves over the girl ever since they left Boston; it was all very well to be kind to one’s poor kin—­but charity began at home when there were girls who had been out three seasons!  What was it, that made