spend the night, and George and Mary left her there,
and came happily home together, laughing, over their little downtown
dinner, with an almost parental indulgence, at Mamma.

In the end, Mamma did go down to the Archibald's for an indefinite
stay. Mary quite overwhelmed her with generous contributions to her
wardrobe, and George presented her with a long-coveted chain. The
parting took place with great affection and regret expressed on both
sides. But this timely relief was clouded for Mary when Mamma flitted
in to see her a day or two later. Mamma wondered if Ma'y dearest could
possibly let her have two hundred dollars.

"Muddie, you've overdrawn again!" Mary accused her. For Mamma had an
income of a thousand a year.

"No, dear, it's not that. I am a little overdrawn, but it's not that.
But you see Richie Carter lives right next do' to the
Arch'balds,"--Mamma's natural Southern accent was gaining strength
every day now,--"and it might be awkward, meetin' him, don't you know?"

"Awkward?" Mary echoed, frowning.

"Well, you see, Ma'y, love, some years ago I was intimate with his
wife," her mother proceeded with some little embarrassment, "and so
when I met him at the Springs last year, I confided in him about--laws!
I forget what it was exactly, some bills I didn't want to bother
Georgie about, anyway. And he was perfectly charmin' about it I"

"Oh, Mamma!" Mary said in distress, "not Richard Carter of the Carter
Construction Company? Oh, Mamma, you know how George hates that whole
crowd! You didn't borrow money of him!"

"Not that he'd ever speak of it--he'd die first!" Mrs. Honeywell said
hastily.

"I'll have to ask George for it," Mary said after a long pause, "and
he'll be furious." To which Mamma, who was on the point of departure,
agreed, adding thoughtfully, "I'm always glad not to be here if
Georgie's going to fly into a rage."

George did fly into a rage at this piece of news, and said some
scathing things of Mamma, even while he wrote out a check for two
hundred dollars.

"Here, you send it to her," he said bitterly to Mary, folding the paper
with a frown. "I don't feel as if I ever wanted to see her again. I
tell you, Mary, I warn you, my dear, that things can't go on this way
much longer. I never refused her money that I know of, and yet she
turns to this fellow Carter!" He interrupted himself with an
exasperated shrug, and began to walk about the room. "She turns to
Carter," he burst out again