He  had  attached  himself  to  Ned  Mather  at  St.  Jacques,
and  thanks  to  the  Mather  influence  had  "made  the
Dickey"  and  was  on  the  right  road  at  Harvard.  He  had
selected  Pemberton  Neck  for  his  family,  because  of  the
Mathers,  the  Chesneys,  the  Sewalls,  and  other  good  peo
ple,  who  had  had  places  there  ever  since  the  north  shore
existed.  To  his  disappointment,  Elsie  had  succeeded
only  indifferently  in  establishing  the  same  cordial  rela
tions  that  he  enjoyed  with  these  people.  The  men
flocked  about  her,  but  the  women  looked  at  her  coldly
across  tea-tables.  Frank  was  popular  all  along  the  coast
from  Nahant  to  Campobello.  He  was  a  pretty  boy,  with
regular  features,  a  perpetual  smile,  and  an  apparently
frank  manner.  He  could  do  passably  well  all  outdoor
sports,  sing  a  little,  and  write  a  little  music.  His  sister's
freakish  interest  in  the  young  clerk  at  the  hotel  was  abso
lutely  incomprehensible  to  him.  Since  he  had  turned
fifteen  there  had  existed  for  him  but  one  class  of  people,
— those  worth  knowing.  And  with  all  the  pertinacity
of  the  good  parasite,  he  inserted  his  tendrils  here  and
there  in  the  crannies  of  the  strong  social  wall.
106  THE   KEAL  WORLD

He  was  attentive  to  Isabelle  Mather,  and  his  sister
helped  him  with  the  girl  where  she  could.  Brother  and
sister  had  a  tacit  agreement  about  their  various  purposes.
But  hers  were  the  larger  views.
