f I took grandpapa with me, I
don't think it would mend matters. Once or twice it was possible, but
not every day. Go and enjoy yourself, dear," she said, kissing her
friend.

Ursula was disposed to cry rather than to enjoy herself, and appealed to
Reginald, who was deeply touched by Phoebe's fine feeling. He took his
sister to the ice, but that day he went so far as to go back himself to
No. 6, actually into the house, to make a humble protest, yet to
insinuate his admiration. He was much impressed by, and approved highly
of this reticence, having a very high standard of minor morals for
ladies, in his mind, like most young men.

"She is not one of the girls who rush about everywhere, and whom one is
sick of seeing," he said.

"I think it is very silly," cried Janey. "Who cares for a chaperon! and
why shouldn't Phoebe have her fun, like the rest, instead of shutting
herself up in a stuffy room with that dreadful old Mrs. Tozer?"

Her brother reproved her so sharply for this speech that Janey withdrew
in tears, still asking "Why?" as she rushed to her room. Clarence
Copperhead, for his part, stroked his moustache and said it was a bore.

"For she is the best skater of all the ladies here," he said. "I beg
your pardon, Miss Ursula. She's got so much go in her, and keeps it up
like fun. She's the best I know for keeping a fellow from getting tired;
but as it's Thursday, I suppose she'll be there in the evening."

Clarence never called them anything but Miss Ursula and Miss Phoebe,
dropping the prefix in his thoughts. He felt that he was "a little sweet
upon" them both; and, indeed, it had gleamed dully across his mind that
a man who could marry them both need never be bored, but was likely
always to find something "to do." Choice, however, being necessary, he
did not see his way so clearly as to which he would choose. "The
mountain sheep are sweeter, but the valley sheep are fatter," he said to
himself, if not in these immortal words, yet with full appreciation of
the sentiment. Ursula began to understand dinners with a judicious
intelligence, which he felt was partly created by his own instructions
and remarks; but in the evening it was Phoebe who reigned supreme. She
was so sensible that most likely she could invent a _menu_ all out of
her own head, he thought, feeling that the girl who got him through the
"Wedding March" with but six mistakes, was capable of any intellectual
feat. He had not the slightest doubt t