about to follow,
but his mother again seized him by the arm, this time shaking him
violently; she must have some one on whom to vent the rage that was
consuming her.

"You--you bad, troublesome, wicked boy! I could shake the very life out
of you!" she hissed through her shut teeth, suiting the action to the
word. "A pretty mess you've made of it, you and Walter. Your birthday
coming next week too; there'll be no presents from Ion for you, you may
rest assured. I hoped Mr. Travilla would send you each a handsome suit,
as he did last year; but of course you'll get nothing now."

"Well, I don't care," muttered Dick, "it's your fault for making the
ugly things." And freeing himself by a sudden jerk, he darted from the
room.

Children and servants had trooped after Mr. Dinsmore to witness the
conflagration, and Dick's sudden exit left the ladies sole occupants of
the apartment.

"I declare it's too bad! too provoking for endurance!" exclaimed Enna,
bursting into a flood of angry tears.

"What's the use of taking it so hard?" returned her sister.

"You're a perfect iceberg," retorted Enna.

"That accounts for my not crying over our misfortune, I presume; my
tears being all frozen up," returned Mrs. Conly with an exasperating
smile. "Well there is comfort in all things: we may now congratulate
ourselves that Foster and Boyd did not wait for these but supplied
themselves elsewhere."

There was a difference of two years in the ages of Dick Percival and
Walter Conly, but they were born on the same day of the same month, and
their birthday would occur in less than a week.

"I say, Wal, what precious fools we've been," remarked Dick as the two
were preparing to retire that night; "why didn't we remember how near it
was to our birthday? Of course, as mother says, there'll be no presents
from Ion this time."

"No, and I wish I'd never seen the hateful things," grumbled Walter,
"but there's no use crying over spilt milk."

"No; and we'll pretend we don't care a cent. Mother sha'n't have the
satisfaction of knowing that I do anyhow;" and Dick whistled a lively
tune as he pulled off his boots and tossed them into a corner.

At about the same time Elsie and her husband, seated alone together in
their veranda, were conversing on the same subject. Mr. Travilla
introduced it. They had been regretting the effect of the fright of the
evening upon their children--Vi especially as the one predisposed to
undue excitement of the