the gay old boys,
like Marcus Aurelius for example, want to turn over in their graves when
they see us flying along the roads of California the way we do."

"What I was getting at," said Linda, "was a word of reply to the
remainder of your indictment against me. Dad's income stopped with him,
and household expenses went on, and war came, so there isn't enough
money to dress two of us as most of the high school girls are dressed.
Eileen is so much older that it's her turn first, and I must say she is
not at all backward about exercising her rights. I think that will
have to suffice for the question of dress but you may be sure that I am
capable of wearing the loveliest dress imaginable, that would be for a
school girl, if I had it to wear."

"Ah, there's the little 'fly in your ointment'--'dress that would be
suitable.' I bet in your heart you think the dresses that half the girls
in high school are wearing are NOT SUITABLE!"

"Commendable perspicacity, O learned senior," said Linda, "and amazingly
true. In the few short years I had with Daddy I acquired a fixed idea as
to what kind of dress is suitable and sufficiently durable to wear while
walking my daily two miles. I can't seem to become reconciled to the
custom of dressing the same for school as for a party. You get my idea?"

"I get it all right enough," said Donald, "but I must think awhile
before I decide whether I agree with you. Why should you be right, and
hundreds of other girls be wrong?"

"I'll wager your mother would agree with me," suggested Linda.

"Did yours?" asked Donald.

"Halfway," answered Linda. "She agreed with me for me, but not for
Eileen."

"And not for my sister," said Donald. "She wears the very foxiest
clothes that Father can afford to pay for, and when she was going to
school she wore them without the least regard as to whether she was
going to school or to a tea party or a matinee. For that matter she
frequently went to all three the same day.

"And that brings us straight to the point concerning you," said Linda.

"Sure enough!" said Donald. "There is me to be considered! What is it
you have against me?"

Linda looked at him meditatively.

"You SEEM exceptionally strong," she said. "No doubt are good in
athletics. Your head looks all right; it indicates brains. What I want
to know is why in the world you don't us them."

"What are you getting at, anyway?" asked Donald, with more than a hint
of asperity in his voice.

"I