and a woman. Then why this air of discovery?"

But it did not get Katie into the smoke. He made no effort to get her in,
but after a moment came back to her with a kindly: "I am glad you have
such a friend, Katie. It will do you good."

That inward chuckle showed no disposition to dissolve into anything; it
fought hard to be just a live, healthy chuckle.

Moved by an impulse half serious, half mischievous she asked: "You would
say then, Wayne, that Ann seems to you more of a lady than Zelda Fraser?"

Wayne's real answer lay in his look of disgust. He did condescend to put
into words: "Oh, don't be absurd, Katie."

"But Zelda has a splendid ancestry," she pressed.

"And suggests a chorus girl."

That stilled her. It left her things to think about.

At last she asked: "And Wayne, which would you say I was?"

He came back from a considerable distance. "Which of what?"

"Lady or chorus girl?"

He looked at her and smiled. Katie was all aglow with the daring of her
adventure. "I should say, Katie dear, that you were a half-breed."

"What a sounding thing to be! But Major Darrett in his last letter tells
me I am his idea of a thoroughbred. How can I be a half-breed if I'm a
thoroughbred?"

"True, it makes you a biological freak. But you should be too original to
complain of that."

"But I do complain. It sounds like something with three legs. Not but
what I'd rather be a biological freak than a grind--or a prude."

"Be at peace," drily advised Wayne.

"Ann was quiet to-night," mused Katie, feeling an irresistible desire
to get back to her post of duty, not because there was any need for her
being there, but merely because she liked the post. "She felt a little
strange, I think. She has been much alone and with people of a
different sort."

"And I presume it never occurred to you, Katie, that neither Ann nor I
was fairly surfeited with opportunities for conversational initiative?
Just drop me a hint sometime when you are not going to be at home, will
you? I should like a chance to get acquainted with your friend."

Katie was straightway the hen with feathers ruffled over her brood. "You
must be careful, Wayne," she clucked at him. "When you are alone with Ann
please try to avoid all unpleasant subjects, or anything you see she
would rather not talk about."

"Thanks awfully for the hint," returned Wayne quietly. "I had been
meaning to speak first of her father's funeral. I thought I would follow
that with