every way to
minimise it. Betty plunged into football talk, to which Shock listened
for the most part smilingly silent.

She was determined to draw her unhappy visitor from his shell. But her
most brilliant efforts were in vain. Poor Shock remained hopelessly
engaged with his hands and feet, and replied at unexpected places, in
explosive monosyllables at once ludicrous and disconcerting. Not even
The Don, who came to her assistance, could relieve the awkwardness of
the situation. Shock was too large to be ignored, and too unwieldy to
be adjusted.

After a few minutes of hopeless endeavour The Don gave up the attempt
and rose to go, saying: "You will need to excuse us. We are due at a
meeting to-night. Come along, Brown."

The alacrity which Shock displayed in getting upon his feet gave
abundant testimony to the agony he had been suffering during the last
half hour.

"Yes, we must be off," said Brown, far more eager to go than was his
wont.

"Will you not come again?" said Betty to Shock, as she shook hands with
him. "My mother would be glad to see you."

But Shock could only look at her blankly, evidently wondering what her
mother might wish to see him for, and when Betty tried to extract a
promise from him he muttered something about being "far behind in his
work and very busy."

But Betty was not to be baulked.

"I should like to call on your mother," she said. But again Shock
looked blank, while Brown began to make faces at her from behind his
back.

"When will your mother be in?" she persisted.

"Oh, she's in every day, except when she goes out for a walk, or--"

Brown kept up his signalling, and The Don began to look puzzled and
annoyed.

"Well," said Betty desperately, "I would like to go and see her some
day."

Shock hesitated, blushed, and then answered: "We have no friends in the
city, and we do not visit much, and--"

"Oh, I'll tell you, Miss Betty," burst in Brown. "Get a sharp attack of
typhoid and Mrs. Macgregor will then come and see you. She's a great
nurse."

"That she is," said Shock enthusiastically. "She would be glad to come."

"Come along, Brown," broke in The Don. "We are late now. Come along,
Shock," and the three men went off together, leaving Lloyd behind.

"Isn't he awful?" said Beth. "And didn't I humiliate myself?"

"You certainly deserved humiliation," said her sister indignantly. "You
might have seen he was dreadfully shy, and you ought to have left him
alone. And