to have a good time and knows how to dance they can get
fresh with her. I didn't like the way Ort Hippisley held me and I told
him. Finally I wouldn't dance any more with him. I gave his dances to
Grant Beadle till the last; then Ort begged so hard I said all right.
And he danced like a gentleman. But on the way home he--he put his arm
round me. And when I told him to take it away he wouldn't. He said I had
been in his arms half the evening before folks, and if I hadn't minded
then I oughtn't to mind now. And I said: 'Is that so? Well, it's mighty
different when you're dancing.' And he said, 'Oh no, it isn't,' and I
said, 'Oh yes, it is.' And he tried to kiss me and I hauled off and
smashed him right in the nose. It bloodied all over his dress soot, and
I'm glad of it."

Somehow Papa Pepperall felt such an impulse to give three cheers that he
had to put his own hand over his mouth. He tiptoed to his room, and when
mamma appeared to announce with triumph, "I guess Prue hasn't gone to
the bad yet," papa said: "Who said she had? Prue is the finest girl in
America!"

"I thought you were saying--"

"Why can't you ever once get me right? I was saying that Prue is too
fine a girl to be allowed to mingle with that tango set. I'm going to
cowhide that Hippisley cub. And Prue's not going to another one of those
dances."

But he didn't. And she did.

VI

Ollie was up betimes the next morning to get breakfast and make haste to
her office. She was so excited that she dropped a stove-lid on the
coalscuttle just as her mother appeared.

"For mercy's sake, less noise!" Serina whispered. "You'll wake poor
Prue!"

Ollie next dropped the tray she had just unloaded on the table. Serina
was furious. Ollie whispered:

"I'm so nervous for fear I've lost my job at Judge Hippisley's, now that
Prue had to go and slap Orton."

"Always thinking of yourself," was Serina's rebuke. "Don't be so
selfish!"

But Ollie's fears were wasted. Orton Hippisley might have boasted of
kisses he did not get, but not of the slaps that he did. He had gained a
new respect for Prue, and at the first opportunity pleaded for
forgiveness, eying her little fist the while. He begged her to go with
him to a dance at his home that evening.

She forgave him for the sake of the invitation--and she glided and
dipped at the judge's house while Ollie spent the evening in his office
trying to finish the day's work. Her speed was not yet up to
requirements. Pru