nd assured her they were "going out soon." Finally, busy and absorbed
as she was, she fell a prey to curiosity. She knew that the young men
had always rather feared her, as she had a forbidding reputation in the
way of "bookishness"; and as most of them had either left Rosewater or
married, in the four years of her absence, she had expected nothing from
them. But the girls? The young married women, who had been her comrades
at the High School? Did they resent her three years abroad and the sense
of superiority implied? It was patent from their manner that they
resented nothing. Did they disapprove of her becoming so energetic a
business woman? It was true that the girls of California's country
towns, except when forced by poverty to work, were the laziest mortals
on earth. But nothing could exceed their good-nature and entire
indifference. Isabel might have started a race-track or opened a
livery-stable and they would have vaguely admired, and been thankful
that themselves were as God made them. Her friend Anabel Colton was in
the south with an ailing child, and Mrs. Leslie was with her, or the
problem would have been quickly solved.

One morning she met the beauty of Rosewater on Main Street, Miss Dolly
Boutts, a girl who had been half grown when she left, but one of her own
rapturous admirers. Main Street was crowded, but Miss Boutts rushed up
and kissed her, protesting that she had been trying for two months to
get out to see her. Isabel guided her firmly to an ice-cream table in
the candy store, and while Miss Boutts, who was a superb specimen of
animal beauty with a corresponding appetite, disposed of two saucers of
the delectable and a plate of cakes, Isabel dived to the heart of the
mystery.

She began by dilating upon her pleasure in being home again, and then
congratulated her handsome friend, with a touch of sarcasm, upon the
overwhelming gayeties of Rosewater.

Miss Boutts stared. "Gayeties?" said she.

"What else? I never knew people so absorbed, although I fail to see why
I should be wholly excluded. Or have the fashions changed, and was I
expected to call first--"

Miss Boutts, who was not particularly quick of apprehension, here threw
back her head and gave a musical laugh, which was out of tune with her
drawling nasal voice and abundant slang.

"You innocent!" she cried. "Where have you been? I suppose you have been
imagining us at dances and dinners and teas and things. Why, we have
only danced t