!" Miss Vail laid
down her fork and stared, her mild eyes wide with astonishment. "You
aren't sick, are you?"

"I think I'm sick of always and always going to the same places with the
same person, and hearing the same people say the same things!" Instantly
she wished she might recall the sharp words, satisfying as they were to
herself, for little Miss Lydia was regarding her much as the aunt of the
wretched girl in the fairy tale might have done,--the girl out of whose
mouth a frog jumped every time she opened it. Indeed, the sentence seemed
actually visible between them, like a squat and ugly small beast on the
shining white cloth. "Sorry, Aunt Lyddy," said Jane, penitently. "I'm a
crosspatch to-night, and I ought to sit by the fire and spin, instead of
gamboling."

Miss Vail's face cleared. "No, indeed, dearie, it'll be much better for
you to go and have a merry time with your young companions. That paper
was a nervous strain, _that's_ all! Now you just eat a good supper and
then run upstairs and make yourself as pretty as you can!" Her plump face
broke up into sly lines and she nodded happily. "Marty'll come for you at
quarter before eight; he telephoned before you got home."

Martin Wetherby was even better than his word, which was one of his most
sterling traits. He arrived at twenty-five minutes before eight and
waited contentedly in converse with her aunt until Jane came down. "I
didn't bring the car," he said. "I thought we'd like to walk." When they
reached the sidewalk he lifted her right forearm in a warm, moist grasp
and held it firmly close against him. "The car's too quick, Janey," he
said, huskily. "Gets us there too soon!"

"Well," said Jane, brightly, "we mustn't be late, your mother likes
people to be prompt, you know!" She managed to tug her arm away the
fraction of an inch.

"She likes _you_, any old time," he said, blissfully. He always got husky
and thick sounding in emotion, Jane reflected, and breathed heavily.

"Aren't we going to stop by for Sally?"

"No; I asked Edward R. and Nannie to pick her up in their little old
boat. No, we aren't going to have anybody--but just--_us_!" He squeezed
her arm against him again. "Janey, I guess you know all right how I----"

"Oh!" cried Jane,--"here they are, now! Hello, people!"

"Hello yourselves!" said Edward R. Hunter, bringing his machine to a stop
beside them. "Want to hop in? Plenty room."

"No, of course they don't want to hop in, goose!"