when that is
only her way of trying to catch one. You know Tom Reed was here last
evening?"

Annie nodded. Her face turned scarlet, then pathetically pale. She bent
over her omelet, carefully lifting it around the edges.

"Well," Benny went on, "I know he came to see you, and Imogen went to
the door and ushered him into the parlor, and I was out on the piazza,
and she didn't know it, but I heard her tell him that she thought you
had gone out. She hinted, too, that George Wells had taken you to the
concert in the town hall. He did ask you, didn't he?"

"Yes."

"Well, Imogen spoke in this way." Benny lowered his voice and imitated
Imogen to the life. "'Yes, we are all well, thank you. Father is busy,
of course; Jane has run over to Mrs. Jacobs's for a pattern; Eliza is
writing letters; and Susan is somewhere about the house. Annie--well,
Annie-George Wells asked her to go to the concert--I rather--' Then,"
said Benny, in his natural voice, "Imogen stopped, and she could say
truthfully that she didn't lie, but anybody would have thought from what
she said that you had gone to the concert with George Wells."

"Did Tom inquire for me?" asked Annie, in a low voice.

"Didn't have a chance. Imogen got ahead of him."

"Oh, well, then it doesn't matter. I dare say he did come to see
Imogen."

"He didn't," said Benny, stoutly. "And that isn't all. Say, Annie--"

"What?"

"Are you going to marry George Wells? It is none of my business, but are
you?"

Annie laughed a little, although her face was still pale. She had folded
the omelet and was carefully watching it.

"You need not worry about that, Benny dear," she said.

"Then what right have the girls to tell so many people the nice things
they hear you say about him?"

Annie removed the omelet skilfully from the pan to a hot plate, which
she set on the range shelf, and turned to her brother.

"What nice things do they hear me say?"

"That he is so handsome; that he has such a good position; that he is
the very best young man in the place; that you should think every girl
would be head over heels in love with him; that every word he speaks is
so bright and clever."

Annie looked at her brother.

"I don't believe you ever said one of those things," remarked Benny.

Annie continued to look at him.

"Did you?"

"Benny dear, I am not going to tell you."

"You won't say you never did, because that would be putting your sisters
in the wrong and admitting that