e mouse moaned and writhed upon the bed.

"Oh, I wouldn't treat YOU so!"

The cat seated herself across the room, and asked quietly--

"Well, what could you do if it WAS Mr. Corey? You couldn't come to tea,
you say. But HE'LL excuse you. I've told him you had a headache.
Why, of course you can't come! It would be too barefaced But you
needn't be troubled, Irene; I'll do my best to make the time pass
pleasantly for him." Here the cat gave a low titter, and the mouse
girded itself up with a momentary courage and self-respect.

"I should think you would be ashamed to come here and tease me so."

"I don't see why you shouldn't believe me," argued Penelope. "Why
shouldn't he come down with father, if father asked him? and he'd be
sure to if he thought of it. I don't see any p'ints about that frog
that's any better than any other frog."

The sense of her sister's helplessness was too much for the tease; she
broke down in a fit of smothered laughter, which convinced her victim
that it was nothing but an ill-timed joke.

"Well, Pen, I wouldn't use you so," she whimpered.

Penelope threw herself on the bed beside her.

"Oh, poor Irene! He IS here. It's a solemn fact." And she caressed and
soothed her sister, while she choked with laughter. "You must get up
and come out. I don't know what brought him here, but here he is."

"It's too late now," said Irene desolately. Then she added, with a
wilder despair: "What a fool I was to take that walk!"

"Well," coaxed her sister, "come out and get some tea. The tea will do
you good."

"No, no; I can't come. But send me a cup here."

"Yes, and then perhaps you can see him later in the evening."

"I shall not see him at all."

An hour after Penelope came back to her sister's room and found her
before her glass. "You might as well have kept still, and been well by
morning, 'Rene," she said. "As soon as we were done father said,
'Well, Mr. Corey and I have got to talk over a little matter of
business, and we'll excuse you, ladies.' He looked at mother in a way
that I guess was pretty hard to bear. 'Rene, you ought to have heard
the Colonel swelling at supper. It would have made you feel that all
he said the other day was nothing."

Mrs. Lapham suddenly opened the door.

"Now, see here, Pen," she said, as she closed it behind her, "I've had
just as much as I can stand from your father, and if you don't tell me
this instant what it all means----"

She left