the Warrens' modest house, the wily
chauffeur, looking after them as they walked along the
nasturtium-bordered path that led to the porch, winked the wink of one
on the inside, and smiled broadly as he murmured: "She's a crackajack!
And if there ain't somethin' doin' _this_ time, I'll eat my goggles!"

* * * * *

"Don't you think, mother," said Nancy, an hour or so later--they were
sitting in Nancy's room, Mrs. Warren, with unusual condescension,
having come up for a little chat--"that it would have been rather
nicer to have had dinner here Friday night, the eventful Friday
night"--a queer little tremor ran over her--"instead of at Mr.
Thornton's?"

"Why, no," said Mrs. Warren, complacently; "I think it will make
everything easier for James if we are up there. You know he is
inclined to be diffident, Nancy. A man always appears to better
advantage in his own house."

"And of course that is the only thing to be considered." Nancy smiled
half bitterly. She had lost a little of the buoyancy of a few hours
before.

"Why, of course, my dear," Mrs. Warren began, hastily, "if you prefer
to----?"

"Oh, no, let it go at that," returned Nancy, carelessly. "It will be
all the same at the end of a lifetime." She shrugged her shoulders as
she spoke. "What shall I wear, mother?" she asked the next moment,
with an entire change of manner. "My white, virginal simplicity and
all that sort of rot; my shabby little yellow, or the scarlet? Those
are my 'devilish all,' you know."

"The white, by _all_ means, Nancy." Mrs. Warren's tone was impressive;
and for reasons of her own she chose to ignore the slang.

"Pink rose in the hair, I suppose, a _Janice Meredith_ curl, bobbing
on my neck and nearly scratching the life out of me, a few _visibly
invisible_ little pink ribbons, and any other 'parlor tricks' I happen
to know----"

"Anne!" Her mother frowned angrily.

"Then be led into the conservatory"--Nancy paid no attention to the
interruption--"have the moonlight turned on. Horrors, think of that
artificial moonlight!" Nancy shuddered. "And then say yes! Heavens! I
hope I shan't say yes until it's time. It would be awful to miscue at
that stage of the game!"

Mrs. Warren rose abruptly from her chair, and without a word started
for the door, quivering with indignation.

"There! I've been a brute again," cried Nancy, penitently, dashing
after her mother.

"Yes, I think you have," blazed Mrs. Wa