A few duller
girls found her interesting, and one or two young men came to the
house with the object of meeting other young women; but she was
rapidly becoming one of the social supernumeraries who are asked out
only because they are on people's lists.
The blow was bitter to Mrs. Lethbury; but she consoled herself with
the idea that Jane had failed because she was too clever. Jane
probably shared this conviction; at all events she betrayed no
consciousness of failure. She had developed a pronounced taste for
society, and went out, unweariedly and obstinately, winter after
winter, while Mrs. Lethbury toiled in her wake, showering attentions
on oblivious hostesses. To Lethbury there was something at once
tragic and exasperating in the sight of their two figures, the one
conciliatory, the other dogged, both pursuing with unabated zeal the
elusive prize of popularity. He even began to feel a personal stake
in the pursuit, not as it concerned Jane, but as it affected his
wife. He saw that the latter was the victim of Jane's
disappointment: that Jane was not above the crude satisfaction of
"taking it out" of her mother. Experience checked the impulse to
come to his wife's defence; and when his resentment was at its
height, Jane disarmed him by giving up the struggle.
Nothing was said to mark her capitulation; but Lethbury noticed that
the visiting ceased, and that the dressmaker's bills diminished. At
the same time, Mrs. Lethbury made it known that Jane had taken up
charities; and before long Jane's conversation confirmed this
announcement.
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