u say you don't
want to talk about anything at all, and all of a sudden you break
out and talk a blue streak; and just about the time I begin to get
interested in what you're saying you shut off! What's the matter with
girls, anyhow, when they do things like that?"

"I don't know; we're just queer, I guess."

"I say so! Well, what'll we do NOW? Talk, or just sit?"

"Suppose we just sit some more."

"Anything to oblige," he assented. "I'm willing to sit as long as you
like."

But even as he made his amiability clear in this matter, the peace was
threatened--his mother came down the corridor like a rolling, ominous
cloud. She was looking about her on all sides, in a fidget of annoyance,
searching for him, and to his dismay she saw him. She immediately made a
horrible face at his companion, beckoned to him imperiously with a dumpy
arm, and shook her head reprovingly. The unfortunate young man tried to
repulse her with an icy stare, but this effort having obtained little to
encourage his feeble hope of driving her away, he shifted his chair
so that his back was toward her discomfiting pantomime. He should
have known better, the instant result was Mrs. Dowling in motion at an
impetuous waddle.

She entered the box-tree seclusion with the lower rotundities of her
face hastily modelled into the resemblance of an over-benevolent smile
a contortion which neglected to spread its intended geniality upward to
the exasperated eyes and anxious forehead.

"I think your mother wants to speak to you, Frank," Alice said, upon
this advent.

Mrs. Dowling nodded to her. "Good evening, Miss Adams," she said. "I
just thought as you and Frank weren't dancing you wouldn't mind my
disturbing you----"

"Not at all," Alice murmured.

Mr. Dowling seemed of a different mind. "Well, what DO you want?" he
inquired, whereupon his mother struck him roguishly with her fan.

"Bad fellow!" She turned to Alice. "I'm sure you won't mind excusing him
to let him do something for his old mother, Miss Adams."

"What DO you want?" the son repeated.

"Two very nice things," Mrs. Dowling informed him. "Everybody is so
anxious for Henrietta Lamb to have a pleasant evening, because it's the
very first time she's been anywhere since her father's death, and of
course her dear grandfather's an old friend of ours, and----"

"Well, well!" her son interrupted. "Miss Adams isn't interested in all
this, mother."

"But Henrietta came to speak to Ella and m