d have got you girls a governess only papa said he couldn't
possibly afford it, as times are dull; when the children are grown it's
embarrassing to know how to meet their former schoolmates!"

"Nothing easier! Just turn your shoulder or look straight ahead!"
Vera stood up, and, using a chair to represent the offending party,
illustrated her remarks with appropriate gestures.

"Yes, but the girls aren't like that chair. They wouldn't be sat upon
so easily!" exclaimed Hermione.

"They would understand the next time unless they were unusually dense,"
retorted Vera.

Hermione laughed.

"I can imagine I see you trying to cut Ivy Bonner that way! She would
toss up her head and give you the 'icy stare'. As for Laura, she
wouldn't understand; she'd only think it a pity you were so
near-sighted!"

"Well, girls, don't get to quarreling," interrupted their mother.
"I'll make it a point to warn Alene's uncle. I'm sure her mother would
have collapsed had she been in my place to-day! I'm afraid the Dawsons
will be vexed because I've not had her over here to get better
acquainted with you girls!"

"You have asked her often enough, dear knows, and she never came, yet
she seems very intimate with those other girls!" commented Hermione.

"I admire her taste," said Vera. "It's all because her mother's not
here to look after her. Some men are queer. Very likely her uncle
never sees the difference between those town girls and others!"

"Well, what difference is there, except that Ivy and Laura are more
clever than the average?"

"Hermione, you talk like a--a socialist! The barriers between the
classes must be preserved, especially in these times when education is
trying to sweep them away! Else where would we land?"

"We, the royal family," muttered Hermione in an aside to Vera. "Don't
you remember Grandpa Green's prize pigs?"

Vera pretended not to hear, and their mother, taking breath, continued,
"There's no use talking, girls, those children are not in the Dawson
set! The idea of wearing tissue-paper hats on the street in broad
daylight!" So saying, she sailed from the room and the hidden books
were promptly brought forth and the interrupted reading resumed.

CHAPTER X

ALENE'S VISITORS

"Alene, Mrs. Ramsey stopped in the office yesterday to lecture me on
the criminality of tissue-paper hats," said Uncle Fred at supper the
next evening. Although his voice was solemn, the twinkle in his eyes
told m