y when I get serious
and--please don't let's be serious."

The rest of the dinner was very satisfactory, for he left her nothing
to do but sit back and enjoy herself. And he made her laugh, sharing
with him his laughter. It was half-past ten when they arose and went
out upon the street. There she kept right on forgetting. It was not
until she stood in her room, half-undressed, that she remembered she
had not told Pendleton that to-night was positively to bring to an end
this impossible friendship.

CHAPTER XII

A SOCIAL WIDOW

With the approach of the holiday season, when pretty nearly every one
comes back to town, Frances found her engagements multiplying so
rapidly that it required a good deal of tact and not a little
arithmetic to keep them from conflicting. In this emergency, when she
really needed Don, not only was he of no practical help, but he
further embarrassed her by announcing a blanket refusal of all
afternoon engagements. This placed her in the embarrassing position of
being obliged to go alone and then apologize for him.

"Poor Don is in business now," was her stock explanation.

She was irritated with Don for having placed her in this position. In
return for having surrendered to him certain privileges, she had
expected him to fulfill certain obligations. If she had promised to
allow him to serve exclusively as her social partner, then he should
have been at all times available. He had no right to leave her a
social widow--even when he could not help it. As far as the afternoons
were concerned, the poor boy could not help it--she knew that; but,
even so, why should her winter be broken up by what some one else
could not help?

She had given her consent to Don, not to a business man. As Don he had
been delightful. No girl could ask to have a more attentive and
thoughtful fiance than he had been. He allowed her to make all his
engagements for him, and he never failed her. He was the only man she
knew who could sit through a tea without appearing either silly or
bored. And he was nice--but not too nice--to all her girl friends, so
that most of them were jealous of her. Decidedly, she had had nothing
to complain of.

And she had not complained, even when he announced that he was
penniless. This did not affect her feeling toward Don himself. It was
something of a nuisance, but, after all, a matter of no great
consequence. She had no doubt he could make all the money he wanted,
just as her