ath.

"HURRY!" said Mrs. Baxter. And hastily gathering some fragments of
glass, she dropped them upon the engraving, pushed it out of the way,
and went forward to greet Miss Pratt and her attendants.

As for William, he did not even pause to close his mouth, but fled with
it open. Upward he sped, unseen, and came to a breathless halt upon the
landing at the top of the stairs.

As it were in a dream he heard his mother's hospitable greetings at the
door, and then the little party lingered in the hall, detained by Miss
Pratt's discovery of Jane.

"Oh, tweetums tootums ickle dirl!" he heard the ravishing voice exclaim.
"Oh, tootums ickle blue sash!"

"It cost a dollar and eighty-nine cents," said Jane. "Willie sat on the
cakes."

"Oh no, he didn't," Mrs. Baxter laughed. "He didn't QUITE!"

"He had to go up-stairs," said Jane. And as the stricken listener above
smote his forehead, she added placidly, "He tore a hole in his clo'es."

She seemed about to furnish details, her mood being communicative, but
Mrs. Baxter led the way into the "living-room"; the hall was vacated,
and only the murmur of voices and laughter reached William. What
descriptive information Jane may have added was spared his hearing,
which was a mercy.

And yet it may be that he could not have felt worse than he did; for
there IS nothing worse than to be seventeen and to hear one of the
Noblest girls in the world told by a little child that you sat on the
cakes and tore a hole in your clo'es.

William leaned upon the banister railing and thought thoughts about
Jane. For several long, seething moments he thought of her exclusively.
Then, spurred by the loud laughter of rivals and the agony of knowing
that even in his own house they were monopolizing the attention of one
of the Noblest, he hastened into his own, room and took account of his
reverses.

Standing with his back to the mirror, he obtained over his shoulder
a view of his trousers which caused him to break out in a fresh
perspiration. Again he wiped his forehead with the handkerchief, and the
result was instantly visible in the mirror.

The air thickened with sounds of frenzy, followed by a torrential roar
and great sputterings in a bath-room, which tumult subsiding, William
returned at a tragic gallop to his room and, having removed his
trousers, began a feverish examination of the garments hanging in a
clothes-closet. There were two pairs of flannel trousers which would
probably a