ly as she turned a merry eye on Grace: "The kind Roy once
said he'd like to be. Remember, Grace?"

"Yes, I remember," Grace answered in a tone that indicated the memory
was not a pleasant one. "And I told him he had better drop that idea in
a hurry if he expected me--I mean--any girl--" she floundered, while
they laughed mockingly at her, "to have anything to do with him," she
finished rather weakly, while the girls giggled exasperatingly.

"Well, I don't know," remarked Betty, in an altruistic effort to pour
oil upon the troubled waters, "that I would particularly mind marrying a
scientific farmer if they all have houses like this and acres of ground
with orchards and cows and chickens--"

"And potato bugs," finished Grace, while the girls laughed merrily.

"Well," remarked Mollie, with a desperate gleam in her eye, "I'd marry
just about anybody who would give me a square meal."

"Goodness," remarked Betty, twinkling, "it's mighty lucky for Frank that
there aren't any young men of marriageable age on the horizon just now."

The next moment she regretted her innocent little speech, for she could
see that the mention of the boys had brought more vividly to Grace and
Mrs. Ford and Amy the thought of Will--dear, bright, merry Will--lying
wounded in some far-away hospital, how badly wounded they could not
know, and dared not think.

The silence that fell upon them was broken by the sound of their
hostess' voice, evidently issuing a command to some one in the kitchen.
Then the lady herself swept into the room.

"I'm sorry to have kept you waiting so long," she apologized, "but I
have had to help the maid get dinner on the table. She is a new one,
and, oh, so utterly helpless. Then, too, I was hoping my son would come
home, but since everything is ready and I know you must be starving, we
won't delay dinner any longer. If you will come, please--"

"But this is imposing upon good nature," protested Mrs. Ford, as the
lady held back the portiers and disclosed an inviting table set for
seven, elaborate with shining crystal and silver. "To drop down upon you
from a clear--or rather, a cloudy sky--"

They laughed, and their hostess dismissed the protest with a little wave
of her hand.

"It is a pleasure," she said, adding, as they took their places: "I am
only thankful that a lucky chance enabled me to entertain you well
to-night. I was expecting guests from the nearest farm, but since our
next door neighbors are five m