“I’m going to run around and see Clara Allender,” was replied.

“I’d rather you wouldn’t go there, just now,” said the mother.

“Why not?” asked Emeline.

“I have my reasons for it,” returned Mrs. Minturn.

Emeline looked disappointed.  She was much attached to Clara, who was a sweet-tempered girl, and felt a week’s absence from her as a real privation.  Observing the disappointment of Emeline, Mrs. Minturn said, a little impatiently: 

“I think you might live without seeing Clara every day.  For some time past, you have been little more than her shadow.  I don’t like these girlish intimacies; they never come to any good.”

Tears were in Emeline’s eyes as she turned from her mother and went back to her room.

Mr. Allender, at the age of forty, found himself unable, through the exhaustion of his means, to continue in business.  He would have resigned every thing into the hands of his creditors before suffering a protest, had he not failed to receive an expected payment on the day of his forced suspension.  When he did call together the men to whom he was indebted, he rendered them up all his effects, and in all possible ways aided in the settlement of every thing.  The result was better than he had anticipated.  No one lost a dollar; but he was left penniless.  Just then, the president of one of the Marine Insurance Companies resigned his office, and Mr. Allender was unanimously chosen to fill his place.  The salary was two thousand dollars.  This was sufficient to meet the expense at which his family had been living.  So there was no change in their domestic economy.  This being the case, the Minturns had no good reason for cutting the acquaintance of their old friends, much as they now felt disposed to do so.  The family visiting, however, was far from being as frequent and as familiar as in former times.

Still, on the part of the Minturns the movement was upward, while the Allender’s retained their dead level.  The lawyer, who was a man of talents and perseverance, and withal not over scrupulous on points of abstract morality, gained both money and reputation in his profession, and was at length known as one of the most acute and successful men at the bar.  At last, he was brought forward by one of the political parties as a candidate for a seat in Congress, and elected.

If Mrs. Minturn’s ideas of her own elevation and importance in the social world had been large, they were now increased threefold.  A winter’s residence at the seat of government,—­during which time she mingled freely with the little great people who revolve around certain fixed stars that shine with varied light in the political metropolis,—­raised still higher the standard of self-estimation.  Her daughter Emeline, now a beautiful and accomplished young lady, accompanied her mother wherever she went, and attracted a large share of attention.  Among those who seemed particularly pleased with Emeline was a young man, a member of Congress from New York, who belonged to a wealthy and distinguished family, and who was himself possessed of brilliant talent, that made him conspicuous on the floor of Congress, even among men of long-acknowledged abilities.  His name was Erskine.