ought to give him a little local color at
once? Some native habits, for instance. Dare me to? Come, be a sport and
dare me to! Then if Mother or Jemmy scolds me, I can blame it all on
you."

She stroked his hand persuasively. There was no resisting Jacqueline's
blandishments. He dared her to, albeit with misgivings. Ever since her
infancy, when hearing his voice in the hall she had escaped from her
nurse and her bath simultaneously and arrived, slippery with wet soap,
to welcome him, Jacqueline had been the source of an uneasy fascination
for her godfather. She represented, in his rather humdrum life, the
element of the unexpected.

Some moments later the group gathered about Mrs. Kildare--and
incidentally Jemima--were startled by the appearance of a vision in pink
at the head of the stairs, who casually straddled the banister and
arrived in their midst with the swoop of a rocket.

"Jacqueline!" gasped her sister.

Kate shook her head reprovingly, and smiled. After all, one of her
children was still a child. No need to trouble about the future yet!

Channing was the first of the guests to collect his wits, and he
assisted the newcomer to alight from the newel-post with gallantry.

"What an effective entrance, Miss--ah, Jacqueline," he commented. "An
idea for musical comedy, all the chorus sliding down on to the stage in
a procession. I must suggest it to my friend Cohan."

The girl suddenly felt very small, but she concealed her embarrassment
beneath an excessive nonchalance. "Why, in Boston don't people use their
banisters? We find them so convenient, so time-saving."

"Unfortunately, in Boston," he replied blandly, "very few women seem to
have such decorative legs to exhibit."

There was a shocked pause. Thorpe and Mrs. Kildare had moved out of
hearing. The three other young men rushed into the breach with small
talk, casting furious looks at Channing, much to his amusement.

He made a mental note: "In rural Kentucky the leg may be seen but not
heard."

Later Jacqueline whispered to her sister, "What was wrong with that
compliment? Why did everybody look so queer?"

Their education had not included a course in the lesser feminine
proprieties. But Jemima was not one to be caught napping. Conventions
came to her by instinct.

"He should have said 'limbs,'" she answered promptly. "And he should not
have seen them at all!"

Jacqueline inspected her slim ankles with approval. "I don't see how he
could hav