t uppish. I think that kind of
girl is a good influence to have, don't you?"

Mother, concentrated on an intricate place in her drawn-Yu-ork, didn't
at once answer. Missy gazed at her eagerly. At last mother looked up.

"But what about your work on the Beacon?" she asked.

"Oh, I've thought about that," Missy returned glibly. "And I really
think a trip of this kind would do me more good than just hanging round
a poky newspaper office. Travel, and a different sphere--Keokuk's a big
town, and there seems to be a lot going on there. It's really a good
chance to enlarge my field of vision--to broaden my horizon--don't you
see, mother?"

Mother bent her head lower over her work.

"Are you sure the thought of parties and a lot going on and--" mother
paused a second--"and Archie has nothing to do with it, dear?"

Missy didn't mind the teasing hint about Archie when mother said "dear"
in that tone. It meant that mother was weakening.

Nor did thoughts of the abandoned Cosmos trouble her very much during
the blissfully tumultuous days of refurbishing her wardrobe and packing
her trunk. Nor when she wrote a last society item for Ed Martin to put
in the Beacon:

"Miss Melissa Merriam of Locust Avenue has gone for a two weeks' visit
at the home of Miss Louise Briggs in Keokuk, Iowa."'

The little item held much in its few words. It was a swan-song.

As Ed Martin inelegantly put it, in speaking later with her father,
Missy had "canned the Cosmos."

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Missy, by Dana Gatlin

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