cast her eye
over the hall for some glimpse of the absent Munt, whose arm she meant
to take, and whose ear she meant to fill with questions. But she did not
see him, and something else suggested itself. "He probably wouldn't let
you see him, or if he did, you wouldn't know it."

"How not know it?"

Mrs. Primer did not answer. "One hears such dreadful things. What do you
say--or you'll think I'm a terrible gossip--"

"Oh no;" said Mr. Mavering, impatient for the dreadful thing, whatever
it was.

Mrs. Primer resumed: "--to the young married women meeting last winter
just after a lot of pretty girls had came out, and magnanimously
resolving to give the Buds a chance in society?"

"The Buds?"

"Yes, the Rose-buds--the debutantes; it's an odious little word, but
everybody uses it. Don't you think that's a strange state of things
for America? But I can't believe all those things," said Mrs. Pasmer,
flinging off the shadow of this lurid social condition. "Isn't this a
pretty scene?"

"Yes, it is," Mr. Mavering admitted, withdrawing his mind gradually from
a consideration of Mrs. Pasmer's awful instances. "Yes!" he added, in
final self-possession. "The young fellows certainly do things in a great
deal better style nowadays than we used to."

"Oh yes, indeed! And all those pretty girls do seem to be having such a
good time!"

"Yes; they don't have the despised and rejected appearance that you'd
like to have one believe."

"Not in the least!" Mrs. Pasmer readily consented. "They look radiantly
happy. It shows that you can't trust anything that people say to you."
She abandoned the ground she had just been taking without apparent shame
for her inconsistency. "I fancy it's pretty much as it's always been: if
a girl is attractive, the young men find it out."

"Perhaps," said Mr. Mavering, unbending with dignity, "the young married
women have held another meeting, and resolved to give the Buds one more
chance."

"Oh, there are some pretty mature Roses here," said Mrs. Pasmer,
laughing evasively. "But I suppose Class Day can never be taken from the
young girls."

"I hope not," said Mr. Mavering. His wandering eye fell upon some
young men bringing refreshments across the nave toward them, and he was
reminded to ask Mrs. Pasmer, "Will you have something to eat?" He had
himself had a good deal to eat, before he took up his position at the
advantageous point where John Munt had found him.

"Why, yes, thank you," said