tly pushed Joyce away.

"Go," she whispered. "You want to see and talk with as many as possible.
I shall do nicely alone. All of you go, and then you can tell me more
when you come back. It will be fun to compare experiences. Who has
Dodo?"

"I have her just this minute," said Camille, "but she has sighted Larry
and I can't hold her. He is talking to two men in the window at your
left, and looking handsome as a picture! There, for goodness' sake, go,
if you must! I do believe the little tyke has torn my new dimity,
clutching at it so. Come, Joyce, let's go and speak to those girls. They
look positively wretched in their best clothes, poor things!"

"You go," said Joyce. "I see my old friend Mrs. Hemphill--Rachel's
mother, you know. See her, there with the three children? We must make
the most of ourselves, and you can jolly up the girls better than I. I'm
going to bring some of the interesting people to you, ma mere. You'll
know how to talk to all of them, but you shan't be bored!"

"We need no special vocabulary to be kind," smiled Madame. "I will soon
make friends right here, and I'm not afraid of being bored. People
always talk to the blind, and smile on the deaf. Run along!"

Joyce gave her a love-pat, and hurried after Mrs. Hemphill who, with a
strong grasp on her little ones, was stemming the tide of humanity with
a somewhat defiant mien, while her head was swinging around as if on a
pivot, so determined was she not to miss the sight of a single
decoration or picture, nor the passing of a single guest. She stopped to
speak to a much wrinkled dame in a real Irish bonnet, with a flapping
frill, who was smiling so broadly as to display with reckless abandon
her toothless gums.

"Purty foin, ain't it?" this one laughed, as they stopped abreast of
each other so suddenly that the babies nearly fell over backward. "And
say," lowering her voice so that Joyce barely caught the words, "they do
be tellin' they's to be sand-whiches, an' coffee, an' rale ice-crame
byme-by. Does ye b'lave it?"

"Umph! It gets me what to b'lieve, these days," muttered Mrs. Hemphill,
with a backward slap at one of the children who, upon hearing the
enumeration of goodies, began to tease for some. "What's ailin' you now?"
she cried fiercely. "Want somepin to eat, you say? You want a trouncin',
that's what you want!" lifting the little thing with a motion tenderer
than her words. "Ain't it all the craziest doin's? But say, Mis'
Flaherty, th