ace indicated his deep disgust.

"I heard every word you said!" screamed Mignon. Rage had stripped her of
the thin veneer of civilization. She was the same young savage who had
kicked and screamed her way to whatever she desired when years before
she had been the terror of the neighborhood. "So, that's the reason you
invited me to your old party! You got together and picked me to pieces
and decided to reform me! Just let me tell you that you had better look
to yourselves. I don't need your kind offices. You are a crowd of
hateful, deceitful, mean, horrible girls! I despise you all! Everyone of
you! Do you hear me? I despise you! And _you_, Jerry Macy, had better be
a little careful as to what you gossip about me. I can tell you----"

There came a sudden interruption to the tirade. Through the amazed
groups of young people who could not resist lingering to find out what
it was all about, Mrs. Dean resolutely made her way.

"That will do, Miss La Salle," she commanded sternly. "I cannot allow
you to make such a disgraceful scene in my home, or insult my daughter
and her guests. If you will come quietly upstairs with me and state your
grievance, I shall do all in my power to rectify it. Marjorie," she
turned to her daughter, who stood looking on in wide-eyed distress, "ask
the musicians to start the music for the next dance."

Marjorie obeyed and, somewhat ashamed of their curiosity, the dancers
forgot their thirst for lemonade and flocked into the ballroom. Only
Jerry Macy and Mary Raymond remained.

"It's all my fault, Mrs. Dean," began Jerry contritely. "I didn't know
Mignon was in the alcove. I can't help saying she had no business to
listen, but----"

"It _is_ my business," began Mignon furiously. "I have a right----"

"Don't begin this quarrel all over again." Mrs. Dean held up her hand
for silence. "I repeat," she continued, regarding Mignon with marked
displeasure, "if you will come upstairs with me----"

"Mrs. Dean, it's a shame the way Mignon has been treated to-night,"
burst forth Mary Raymond, "and I for one don't intend to stand by and
see her insulted. Miss Macy said perfectly hateful things about her. I
heard them. Marjorie is just as much to blame. She listened to them and
never said a word to stop them."

"Mary Raymond!" Mrs. Dean's voice held an ominous note that should have
warned Mary to hold her peace. Instead it angered her to open rebellion.

"Don't 'Mary Raymond' me," she mocked in angry s