uit you?"

"Yes, indeed; what girls would you suggest Mr. Cornwall?"

"They've hardly been in my line since I have been up here. I only know
one or two. It's nice to come not knowing who you will meet;--besides I
am not as deeply interested as the other three men. I shall speak for
Miss Durrett in advance and have the pick of all possible prospects."

They returned to their seats under the elms and completed their plans;
Mrs. Neal having announced that she would ask Bessie Hall, Mary Norwood
and Helen Creech.

Dorothy said; "The young men suggested shall go for them while you come
ahead and make yourself generally useful. This is the penalty for being
so presumptuous as to demand me as a partner before I have seen the
other gentlemen."

* * * * *

Mrs. Neal and Dorothy were both experienced entertainers and the little
party was a complete success.

From Wednesday evening the Neal home became the center of gaiety for
more than a dozen young persons. At night when Dorothy was at home each
window seat and rustic bench was the stage of a scene from the first act
of a seemingly serious love affair, had not the actors changed partners
and rehearsed the same scenes.

By day there were picnics to the mountain tops, fishing and bathing
parties, horseback rides up Clover Fork and down the river and at night
card parties, informal dances, hay rides and suppers.

Cornwall, who for more than a year had been very studious and unduly
sedate, went everywhere; making repeated apologies to his mother for
leaving her so much alone all the while declaring that he thought a
thousand times more of her than any girl in the world.

She and Mrs. Neal became great friends. Mr. Neal said, when his wife was
not at home he knew she was over at the Cornwalls', and John, who heard
the remark, replied; "I am always coming over to your house hunting
mother," at which the young crowd on the porch roared with laughter.

Dorothy was the most popular of the girls and in her bird-like way a
beautiful little creature. A blonde of the purest type, of petite and
perfect form, weighing about a hundred pounds.

Every boy that came to the house, at one time or another, gave her a
great bouquet of roses or mountain laurel or a box of chocolates. Among
themselves, they called her Dolly Dimples Durrett. All the household and
the girls called her Dolly; even Cornwall unconsciously called her Dolly
several times; once in Mr