air of a young turkey-cock on parade.

'Miss Grey is looking for you. Wants more grub. Just see if Miss
Nelson's plate is empty, there's a good fellow. Can't eat ice in a
hurry.' And George remained in his safe corner, while Dolly struggled
through the crowd to do his duty, coming back in a fume, with a splash
of salad dressing on his coat-cuff.

'Confound these country chaps! they go blundering round like so many
dor-bugs, and make a deuce of a mess. Better stick to books and not try
to be society men. Can't do it. Beastly stain. Give it a rub, and let me
bolt a mouthful, I'm starved. Never saw girls eat such a lot. It proves
that they ought not to study so much. Never liked co-ed,' growled Dolly,
much ruffled in spirit.

'So they do. 'Tisn't ladylike. Ought to be satisfied with an ice and
a bit of cake, and eat it prettily. Don't like to see a girl feed. We
hard-working men need it, and, by Jove, I mean to get some more of that
meringue if it's not all gone. Here, waiter! bring along that dish over
there, and be lively,' commanded Stuffy, poking a young man in a rather
shabby dress-suit, who was passing with a tray of glasses.

His order was obeyed promptly; but George's appetite was taken away
the next moment by Dolly's exclaiming, as he looked up from his damaged
coat, with a scandalized face:

'You've put your foot in it now, old boy! that's Morton, Mr Bhaer's
crack man. Knows everything, no end of a "dig", and bound to carry off
all the honours. You won't hear the last of it in a hurry.' And Dolly
laughed so heartily that a spoonful of ice flew upon the head of a lady
sitting below him, and got him into a scrape also.

Leaving them to their despair, let us listen to the whispered chat of
two girls comfortably seated in a recess waiting till their escorts were
fed.

'I do think the Laurences give lovely parties. Don't you enjoy them?'
asked the younger, looking about her with the eager air of one unused to
this sort of pleasure.

'Very much, only I never feel as if I was dressed right. My things
seemed elegant at home, and I thought I'd be over over-dressed if
anything; but I look countrified and dowdy here. No time or money to
change now, even if I knew how to do it,' answered the other, glancing
anxiously at her bright pink silk grown, trimmed with cheap lace.

'You must get Mrs Brooke to tell you how to fix your things. She was
very kind to me. I had a green silk, and it looked so cheap and horrid
by