Selma was delighted to have two instead of one, and, after
beholding Mrs. Williams's trig maids, was eager to see her own arrayed
in white caps and black alpaca dresses. Yet, though she had become keen
to cultivate the New York manner, and had succeeded in reconciling her
conscience to the possession of beautiful things by people with a
purpose, it irked her to feel that she was hampered in living up to her
new-found faith by the bugbear of a lean purse. She had expected, as
Wilbur's wife, to figure quickly and gracefully in the van of New York
intellectual and social progress. Instead, she was one among thousands,
living in a new and undeveloped locality, unrecognized by the people of
whom she read in the newspapers, and without opportunities for
displaying her own individuality and talents. It depressed her to see
the long lines of houses, street after street, and to think that she was
merely a unit, unknown by name, in this great sea of humanity--she,
Selma Littleton, free-born American, conscious of virtue and power. This
must not be; and she divined clearer and clearer every day that it need
not be if she had more money.
It began to be annoying to her that Wilbur's professional progress was
not more rapid.
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