lock and the insistent hum of locusts.

"Mrs. Flippin," said Madge, "I wish you'd call up Hamilton Hill and ask
for Mr. Dalton, and tell him that Miss MacVeigh would like to have him
come and see her if he has nothing else on hand."

Mrs. Flippin looked her astonishment. "To-night?"

"Oh, I am not going to receive him this way," Madge reassured her. "If
he can come, I'll get nurse to dress me and make me comfy in the
sitting-room."

Having ascertained that Dalton would be over at once, the nurse was
called, and Madge was made ready. It was a rather high-handed
proceeding, and both Mrs. Flippin and the nurse stood aghast.

The nurse protested. "You really ought not, Miss MacVeigh."

"I love to do things that I ought not to do."

"But you'll tire yourself."

"If you were my Mary," said Mrs. Flippin severely, "I wouldn't let you
have your way----"

"I love to have my own way, Mrs. Flippin. And--I am not your Mary"--then
fearing that she had hurt the kind heart, she caught Mrs. Flippin's hand
in her own and kissed it,--"but I wish I were. You're such a lovely
mother."

Mrs. Flippin smiled at her. "I'm as near like your mother as a hen is
mother to a bluebird."

Madge, robed in the mauve gown, refused to have her hair touched. "I
like it in braids," and so when George came there she sat in the
sitting-room, all gold and mauve--a charming picture for his sulky
eyes.

"Oh," she said, as he came in, in a gray sack suit, with a gray cap in
his hand, "why, you aren't even dressed for dinner!"

"Why should I be?" he demanded. "Kemp has left me."

She had expected something different. "Kemp?"

"Yes."

"Why?"

"He didn't give any reason. Just said he was going--and went. He said he
had intended to go before, and had only stayed until Mrs. Waterman was
better. Offered to stay on a little longer if it would embarrass me any
to have him leave. I told him that if he wanted to go, he could get out
now. And he is packing his bags."

"But what will you do without him?"

"I have wired to New York for a Jap."

"Where will Kemp go?"

"To King's Crest. To work for that lame officer--Prime."

"Oh--Major Prime? How did it happen?"

"Heaven only knows. I call it a mean trick."

"Well, of course, Kemp had a right to go if he wanted to. And perhaps
you will like a Jap better. You always said Kemp was too independent."

"He is," shortly, "but I hate to be upset. It seems as if everything
goes wrong these days. What