here were others--and of course Mildred,
herself."

"Oh, of course, yes. I forgot that. Well----" She paused, then added, "I
certainly OUGHT to dance well."

"Why is it so much a duty?"

"When I think of the dancing-teachers and the expense to papa! All sorts
of fancy instructors--I suppose that's what daughters have fathers for,
though, isn't it? To throw money away on them?"

"You don't----" Russell began, and his look was one of alarm. "You
haven't taken up----"

She understood his apprehension and responded merrily, "Oh, murder, no!
You mean you're afraid I break out sometimes in a piece of cheesecloth
and run around a fountain thirty times, and then, for an encore, show
how much like snakes I can make my arms look."

"I SAID you were a mind-reader!" he exclaimed. "That's exactly what I
was pretending to be afraid you might do."

"'Pretending?' That's nicer of you. No; it's not my mania."

"What is?"

"Oh, nothing in particular that I know of just now. Of course I've had
the usual one: the one that every girl goes through."

"What's that?"

"Good heavens, Mr. Russell, you can't expect me to believe you're really
a man of the world if you don't know that every girl has a time in her
life when she's positive she's divinely talented for the stage! It's the
only universal rule about women that hasn't got an exception. I don't
mean we all want to go on the stage, but we all think we'd be wonderful
if we did. Even Mildred. Oh, she wouldn't confess it to you: you'd have
to know her a great deal better than any man can ever know her to find
out."

"I see," he said. "Girls are always telling us we can't know them. I
wonder if you----"

She took up his thought before he expressed it, and again he was
fascinated by her quickness, which indeed seemed to him almost
telepathic. "Oh, but DON'T we know one another, though!" she cried.

"Such things we have to keep secret--things that go on right before YOUR
eyes!"

"Why don't some of you tell us?" he asked.

"We can't tell you."

"Too much honour?"

"No. Not even too much honour among thieves, Mr. Russell. We don't tell
you about our tricks against one another because we know it wouldn't
make any impression on you. The tricks aren't played against you, and
you have a soft side for cats with lovely manners!"

"What about your tricks against us?"

"Oh, those!" Alice laughed. "We think they're rather cute!"

"Bravo!" he cried, and hammered the ferrule of h