d asked.

"I thought you and I had decided that I was to be a business woman,"
Alice said at last, questioningly.

"Only for the time being," Covington smiled, well satisfied. "That is
all right as a pastime, and you shall indulge in it as much as you like,
but Mrs. John Covington will have more of a position to live up to even
than Miss Alice Gorham."

"That's just it," she said, slowly. "It doesn't seem to me that I am
ready to assume any 'position,' as you call it. Until you and daddy gave
me this chance to do something else besides dances and theatre-parties
and all those things we girls fill our time with, I was drifting
hopelessly. This tiny bit of responsibility has been just the anchor I
needed. What I read means so much more to me, what people talk about is
of increased interest because I am just that much more conversant with
what is going on; and the dances and the theatre-parties are lots more
fun too. What you have asked, Mr. Covington, is enough to make any girl
feel proud and happy, but--I don't believe I'm ready yet to give up my
girlhood now when I am enjoying it most."

"There need be no haste in your decision," he said, graciously.

"Needn't there? Then you will give me a long time to think it over?"

"Not too long, I hope," he answered, significantly.

"But, truly," Alice's pout was exceedingly becoming, "I don't want to be
married at all. Why should I when I am so happy?"

"Isn't that an unusual position for a young girl to take?"

"Perhaps it's because I am young," she admitted, smiling. "But I see so
many--what shall I call them?--semi-detached couples, that it makes me
wonder."

"Semi-detached?" Covington queried.

"Why, yes," she explained; "you know what I mean: the only way they can
live happily together is to live apart."

"You are not very complimentary to me."

"Oh, please!" Alice interrupted quickly. "But you've noticed it, haven't
you?"

"We notice many things which do not require personal application. In the
present instance I think we possess so many interests in common that our
marriage would be considered an ideal one. It would make me very happy."

"You have been so kind," Alice said, looking at him gratefully. "You
know that I appreciate it, don't you? But I had no idea--you quite took
my breath away, you are so much older than I am, and--"

"Am I so terribly old?"

"Oh, no; I mean it is I who am so terribly young. I never felt quite so
young before. I suppose i