The night of Mrs. Yorba's long-heralded ball had arrived at last. For weeks Society had been keenly expectant, for its greatest heiress and its three most beautiful girls were to come forth from the seclusion in which they were supposed to have been cultivating their minds, into the great world of balls, musicales, and teas, where their success would be in inverse ratio to their erudition.
Rose and Caro had arrived the winter before, and were no longer "buds;" but Magdal**, Helena, Tiny, and Ila were hardly known by sight outside the Menlo Park set. Magdal** had never hung over the banisters at her mother's parties. The others had been abroad so long that the most exaggerated stories of their charms prevailed.
The old beaux knotted their white ties with trembling fingers and thought of t
