!

I woke up possessed with the idea, and after putting on my last really
respectable waist and inquiring of myself in the mirror how in the world
I expected to visit Henrietta Morgan with such a dreary trunkful of
travel-worn articles, anyhow, I went down to the breakfast table with my
mind made up.

Henrietta left me after breakfast for a hurried trip to town. I didn't
go with her. I had waked up with a kind of cottony feeling in my throat,
and as hot coffee and toast didn't seem to help it, I made an
examination with a hand-mirror after breakfast. I discovered three white
spots! I wasn't alarmed. They never mean anything serious with me, and
they offered an excellent excuse for my sudden departure. It didn't come
to my mind that the white spots might have been the cause of my sudden
longing for my own little pink room. I simply knew I wanted to go home;
and wake up in the morning cross and disagreeable; and grumble about
the bacon and coffee at the breakfast table if I wanted to.

While Henrietta and her mother were out in the morning, I clinched my
decision by engaging a section on the night train and telegraphing
Edith. Although I was convinced that my departure wouldn't seriously
upset any of the small informal affairs so far planned for my
entertainment, I was acquainted with Mrs. Morgan's tenacious form of
hospitality. By the time she returned my packing was finished, and I was
lying down underneath a down comforter on the couch. I told Mrs. Morgan
about the white spots and my decision to return home.

She would scarcely hear me through. She announced emphatically that she
wouldn't think of allowing me to travel if I was ill. I was to undress
immediately, crawl in between the sheets, and she would call a doctor. I
wasn't rude to Mrs. Morgan, simply firm--that was all--quite as
persistent in my resolve as she in hers.

When finally she became convinced that nothing under heaven could
dissuade me, she flushed slightly and said icily, "Oh, very well, very
well. If that is the way you feel about it, very well, my dear," and
sailed out of the room, hurt. Even Henrietta, though very solicitous,
shared her mother's indignation, and I longed for the comfort and relief
of the Pullman, the friendly porters, and my own understanding people at
the other end.

So, you see, when in the middle of the afternoon I was summoned to the
telephone to receive a telegram from Hilton, I wasn't prepared for the
slap in the face t