t the door
she discovered that she had forgotten her furred overshoes and bade Mac
get them.

"Never mind it's not wet," he said, pulling his cap over his eyes and
plunging into his coat, regardless of the "elegancies" that afflicted
him.

"But I can't walk on cold stones with thin slippers, can I?" began Rose,
showing him a little white foot.

"You needn't, for there you are, my lady." And, unceremoniously picking
her up, Mac landed her in the carriage before she could say a word.

"What an escort!" she exclaimed in comic dismay, as she rescued her
delicate dress from a rug in which he was about to tuck her up like a
mummy.

"It's 'only Mac,' so don't mind," and he cast himself into an
opposite corner with the air of a man who had nerved himself to the
accomplishment of many painful duties and was bound to do them or die.

"But gentlemen don't catch up ladies like bags of meal and poke them
into carriages in this way. It is evident that you need looking after,
and it is high time I undertook your society manners. Now, do mind what
you are about and don't get yourself or me into a scrape if you can help
it," besought Rose, feeling that on many accounts she had gone further
and fared worse.

"I'll behave like a Turveydrop see if I don't."

Mac's idea of the immortal Turveydrop's behavior seemed to be a peculiar
one; for, after dancing once with his cousin, he left her to her own
devices and soon forgot all about her in a long conversation with
Professor Stumph, the learned geologist. Rose did not care, for one
dance proved to her that that branch of Mac's education had been sadly
neglected, and she was glad to glide smoothly about with Steve, though
he was only an inch or two taller than herself. She had plenty of
partners, however, and plenty of chaperons, for all the young men were
her most devoted, and all the matrons beamed upon her with maternal
benignity.

Charlie was not there, for when he found that Rose stood firm, and had
moreover engaged Mac as a permanency, he would not go at all and retired
in high dudgeon to console himself with more dangerous pastimes. Rose
feared it would be so, and even in the midst of the gaiety about her an
anxious mood came over her now and then and made her thoughtful for a
moment. She felt her power and wanted to use it wisely, but did not know
how to be kind to Charlie without being untrue to herself and giving him
false hopes.

"I wish we were all children again, wit