"Why not? It is to be for your girls, and I shall expect you to chaperon
it."

She threw back her head and laughed aloud. "Dear old Jim! I should be as
much out of place in a ballroom now as--as a plow horse. But the girls
will be overjoyed. How did you happen to evolve such an idea?"

"I didn't. It--er--was evolved for me. Jemima--"

Kate sobered. "I might have known it, Jim! I cannot have you so imposed
upon. You must not undertake such a thing."

"But I wish to," he insisted stoutly. "I am very much obliged to Jemima
for thinking of it. It is quite true, as she says, that I am under
obligation to many people who have been most kind to me. It is true also
that I have joined a country club, more by way of encouraging an
infant--er--industry than with any idea of pleasure to myself. But, as
Jemima says, when one joins a club one should patronize it. She tells me
that it will be quite possible to make a dancing man of me with a few
weeks' practice, and that in her opinion exercise and young society are
what is needed to--er--to round out my individuality. Jemima is
doubtless right--she usually is. So I shall issue invitations to a
dancing party at the Country Club, preceded by dinner, as is customary."

Kate laughed again, but with dim eyes. The stanch devotion of this
gentle, kindly scholar was a thing she found very touching. "Dear old
Slow-poke!"--she used the name she and her livelier companions had
given him in the days when he was the dull and quiet one among her
followers. "So you are going to play sponsor to my children once more!"

Both fell silent, remembering the day when he had followed her down the
aisle of the church that meant home to her, under the blank, icy stare
of an entire congregation. He lifted her hand to his lips.

"Jim, I am afraid," she said suddenly. "Women--you know how cruel they
can be! Suppose they choose to punish my children for my sins?" With a
fierce upwelling of the maternal instinct, she dreaded to let her young
go out of her own protection, out of the safe obscurity she had made for
them.

He reassured her as best he could, reminding her of the years that had
passed, and of her daughters' charm. "Why, those girls would bring their
own welcome anywhere! They are exquisite."

"You are prejudiced, Jim, dear."

He admitted it without shame. "But those young men I brought here to
supper--they are not prejudiced, Kate, and I assure you they dog my
footsteps begging to be brou