Mr. Brierly responded to this by a “Humph!” and resumed the perusal of his newspaper.

“It is said,” resumed Mrs. Brierly, who had been asked to state the cause of the unhappy difference existing between the two ladies, “that Mrs. Bates received from her sister in New York a new and very beautiful head-dress, which had been obtained through a friend in Paris.  Mrs. Tarleton wanted it very badly, and begged Mrs. Bates for the pattern; but she refused to let her have it, because a grand party was to be given by the Listons in a few weeks, and she wanted to show it off there herself.  Mrs. Tarleton, however, was not going to take ‘no’ for an answer; she had set her heart upon the head-dress and must have it.  You know what a persevering woman she is when she takes anything into her head.  Well, she called in almost every day to see Mrs. Bates, and every time she would have something to say about the head-dress, and ask to see it.  In this way she got the pattern of it so perfectly in her mind that she was able to direct a milliner how to make her one precisely like it.  All unknown to Mrs. Bates, Mrs. Tarleton came to the party wearing this new style of head-dress, which made her so angry when she discovered it, that she insulted Mrs. Tarleton openly, and then retired from the company.”

“Is it possible!”

“That, I believe, is about the truth of the whole matter.  I have sifted it pretty closely.”

“Well, I declare!  I was at the party, but I saw nothing of this.  I remember Mrs. Tarleton’s head-dress, however, very well.  It certainly was very beautiful, and has become quite fashionable since.”

“Yes, and is called by some the Tarleton head-dress, from the first wearer of it.”

“This no doubt galls Mrs. Bates severely.  They say she is a vain woman.”

“It is more than probable that this circumstance has widened the breach.”

“I must say,” remarked the other lady, “that Mrs. Tarleton did not act well.”

“No, she certainly did not.  At the same time, I think Mrs. Bates was served perfectly right for her selfish vanity.  It wouldn’t have hurt her at all if there had been two or three head-dresses there of exactly the pattern of hers.  But extreme vanity always gets mortified, and in this case I think justly so.”

“Besides, it was very unladylike to insult Mrs. Tarleton in public.”

“Yes, or anywhere else.  She should have taken no notice of it whatever.  A true lady, under circumstances of this kind, seems perfectly unaware of what has occurred.  She shuns, with the utmost carefulness, any appearance of an affront at so trivial a matter, even if she feels it.”

Such was the opinion entertained by the ladies in regard to the misunderstanding, as some others called it, that existed between Mrs. Bates and Mrs. Tarleton.  Both were considered to blame, and nearly equally so; but whether the parties really misunderstood their own or each other’s true position will be seen when the truth appears.