t be amusing. Cora Wales glistened at this. She
said she guessed people could now see how such goings-on were regarded by
society in the true sense of the word. And it did give the girls a chill,
calling the Bigler home a slum. But I still didn't see any stuff in
Dulcie to vanquish Vernabelle.

And I didn't see it a minute later when Dulcie wolfed her tenth
marshmallow and broke out about winter sports. She first said what
perfectly darling snow we had here. This caused some astonishment, no
one present having ever regarded snow as darling but merely as something
to shovel or wade through. So Dulcie pronged off a piece of sticky
chocolate cake and talked on. She said that everyone in New York was
outdooring, and why didn't we outdoor. It was a shame if we didn't go
in for it, with all this perfectly dandy snow. New York people had to
go out of town for their winter sports, owing to the snow not being good
for sport after it fell there; but here it was right at hand, and did we
mean to say we hadn't organized a winter-sports club.

No one spoke, for no one could guess what you did to outdoor properly.
About all they could think of was hustling out after another chunk for
the fireplace or bringing a scuttle of coal up from the cellar. But they
soon got the idea. Dulcie said right from this window she could see a
corking hill for a toboggan slide, and it would be perfectly darling to
be out there with plenty of hot coffee and sandwiches; and there must be
some peachy trips for snowshoe parties with sandwiches and coffee at the
end; or skating in the moonlight with a big bonfire and coffee and
sandwiches.

She suggested other things with coffee and sandwiches and finally got
up some real enthusiasm when she said she had brought some of the dearest
sport toggery with her. The girls was excited enough when they found out
you had to dress especial for it. They was willing to listen to anything
like that if New York society was really mad about it, even if it
conflicted with lifelong habits--no one in Red Gap but small boys
having ever slid downhill.

And still I didn't suspect Dulcie was going to groundsluice Vernabelle.
It looked like the Latin Quarter would still have the best of it, at
least during a cold winter. Which goes to show that you can't tell what
society will go mad about, even in Red Gap, when you can dress for it.

The girls had got a line on Dulcie and was properly impressed by her, and
then with an evenin