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AUNT JANE'S NIECES IN SOCIETY

BY

EDITH VAN DYNE

1910






LIST OF CHAPTERS


CHAPTER

    I   UNCLE JOHN'S DUTY
   II   A QUESTION OF "PULL"
  III   DIANA
   IV   THE THREE NIECES
    V   PREPARING FOR THE PLUNGE
   VI   THE FLY IN THE BROTH
  VII   THE HERO ENTERS AND TROUBLE BEGINS
 VIII   OPENING THE CAMPAIGN
   IX   THE VON TAER PEARLS
    X   MISLED
   XI   LIMOUSINE
  XII   FOGERTY
 XIII   DIANA REVOLTS
  XIV   A COOL ENCOUNTER
   XV   A BEWILDERING EXPERIENCE
  XVI   MADAME CERISE, CUSTODIAN
 XVII   THE MYSTERY DEEPENS
XVIII   A RIFT IN THE CLOUDS
  XIX   POLITIC REPENTANCE
   XX   A TELEPHONE CALL
  XXI   THE UNEXPECTED HAPPENS
 XXII   GONE
XXIII   THE CRISIS
 XXIV   A MATTER OF COURSE




CHAPTER I


UNCLE JOHN'S DUTY

"You're not doing your duty by those girls, John Merrick!"

The gentleman at whom this assertion was flung in a rather angry tone
did not answer his sister-in-law. He sat gazing reflectively at the
pattern in the rug and seemed neither startled nor annoyed. Mrs.
Merrick, a pink-cheeked middle-aged lady attired in an elaborate morning
gown, knitted her brows severely as she regarded the chubby little man
opposite; then, suddenly remembering that the wrinkles might leave their
dreadful mark on her carefully rolled and massaged features, she
banished them with a pass of her ringed hand and sighed dismally.

"It would not have mattered especially had the poor children been left
in their original condition of friendless poverty," she said. "They were
then like a million other girls, content to struggle for a respectable