randniece sharply and
went out of the door. Ariel reentered the room whence she had come. She
laughed again to her fat friend as she passed him, went to the window
and looked out. The porch seemed deserted and was faintly illuminated by
a few Japanese lanterns. She sprang out, dropped upon the divan, and
burying her face in her hands, cried heart-brokenly.

Presently she felt something alive touch her foot, and, her breath
catching with alarm, she started to rise. A thin hand, issuing from a
shabby sleeve, had stolen out between two of the green tubs and was
pressing upon one of her shoes.

"Sh!" warned a voice. "Don't make a noise!"

The warning was not needed; she had recognized the hand and sleeve
instantly. It was her playmate and lifelong friend, Joe Louden.

"What were you going on about?" he asked angrily.

"Nothing," she answered. "I wasn't. You must go away; you know the Judge
doesn't like you."

"What were you crying about?" interrupted the uninvited guest.

"Nothing, I tell you!" she repeated, the tears not ceasing to gather in
her eyes. "I wasn't."

"I want to know what it was," he insisted. "Didn't the fools ask you to
dance! Ah! You needn't tell me. That's it. I've been here, watching, for
the last three dances and you weren't in sight till you came to the
window. Well, what do you care about that for!"

"I don't," she answered. "I don't!" Then suddenly, without being able to
prevent it, she sobbed.

"No," he said, gently, "I see you don't. And you let yourself be a fool
because there are a lot of fools in there."

She gave way, all at once, to a gust of sorrow and bitterness; she bent
far over and caught his hand and laid it against her wet cheek. "Oh,
Joe," she whispered, brokenly, "I think we have such hard lives, you and
I! It doesn't seem right--while we're so young! Why can't we be like the
others? Why can't we have some of the fun?"

He withdrew his hand, with the embarrassment and shame he would have
felt had she been a boy.

"Get out!" he said, feebly.

She did not seem to notice, but, still stooping, rested her elbows on
her knees and her face in her hands. "I try so hard to have some fun, to
be like the rest--and it's always a mistake, always, always, always!"
She rocked herself slightly from side to side. "I'm a fool, it's the
truth, or I wouldn't have come to-night. I want to be attractive--I want
to be in things. I want to laugh as they do--"

"To laugh, just to laugh, and