h
round each tiny plant, so as to bring the roots up with it, that it
might live the longer; and she had brought a napkin, which she
drenched at a hydrant, and kept loosely wrapped about the stems of her
collection.

The turf was too damp for her to kneel; she worked patiently, stooping
from the waist; and when she got home in a drizzle of rain at five
o'clock her knees were tremulous with strain, her back ached, and she
was tired all over, but she had three hundred violets. Her mother moaned
when Alice showed them to her, fragrant in a basin of water.

"Oh, you POOR child! To think of your having to: work so hard to get
things that other girls only need; lift their little fingers for!"

"Never mind," said Alice, huskily. "I've got 'em and I AM going to have
a good time to-night!"

"You've just got to!" Mrs. Adams agreed, intensely sympathetic. "The
Lord knows you deserve to, after picking all these violets, poor thing,
and He wouldn't be mean enough to keep you from it. I may have to get
dinner before I finish the dress, but I can get it done in a few minutes
afterward, and it's going to look right pretty. Don't you worry about
THAT! And with all these lovely violets----"

"I wonder----" Alice began, paused, then went on, fragmentarily: "I
suppose--well, I wonder--do you suppose it would have been better policy
to have told Walter before----"

"No," said her mother. "It would only have given him longer to grumble."

"But he might----"

"Don't worry," Mrs. Adams reassured her. "He'll be a little cross, but
he won't be stubborn; just let me talk to him and don't you say anything
at all, no matter what HE says."

These references to Walter concerned some necessary manoeuvres which
took place at dinner, and were conducted by the mother, Alice having
accepted her advice to sit in silence. Mrs. Adams began by laughing
cheerfully. "I wonder how much longer it took me to cook this dinner
than it does Walter to eat it?" she said. "Don't gobble, child! There's
no hurry."

In contact with his own family Walter was no squanderer of words.

"Is for me," he said. "Got date."

"I know you have, but there's plenty of time."

He smiled in benevolent pity. "YOU know, do you? If you made any
coffee--don't bother if you didn't. Get some down-town." He seemed
about to rise and depart; whereupon Alice, biting her lip, sent a
panic-stricken glance at her mother.

But Mrs. Adams seemed not at all disturbed; and laughed again