ected him. He wore his hair rather long and romantic. I told
him he had the face of a poet. He spent the rest of the evening reciting
original verses to me. That was all. But it looked well."

Kate gazed at her daughter with respect. Her anxiety for Jemima's future
died on the spot.

"And Jacqueline?" she murmured. "Did she, too, manage to distinguish
herself?"

"Oh, Jacky never needs to manage," said the older girl, with a pride in
her little sister that was not lacking in nobility. "Whenever I wanted
to find Jacky, I looked for the nearest crowd of men. They were like
flies around a honey-pot."

Thorpe nodded smiling confirmation. "It was like old times. More than
one person said to me, 'Kate Leigh is back again!'"

She flushed, incredulously. "They spoke of _me_?"

"Of course they did," cried Jacqueline, hugging her. "I was so proud.
All the old men told me I looked like you, and most of them tried to
kiss me when they got me alone."

"Great Heavens! I hope they didn't succeed?"

"Not all of them," said Jacqueline, demurely....

But her mother was not laughing when she followed Jemima into her room,
and closed the door behind them.

"Now tell me everything that happened. What did Jacqueline mean by
'snippy' girls? Were any of those women rude to you?"

"Oh, no, Mother, not rude, of course." The lift of Jemima's chin said
quite plainly, "I should not have permitted that."

"But they were not nice to you?"

The girl hesitated. Slowly the blood mounted up her delicate cheeks to
the roots of her hair. Kate saw with dismay that her lips were
trembling.

"My child!"--she took a step toward her.

But Jemima drew back, mastering herself. "Somebody ought to have told
us, you or Professor Jim, or somebody," she said, quaveringly, "Perhaps
you didn't know, but--Oh, Mother we made a dreadful mistake!"

"In going?" Kate clenched her hands. The look on her set face boded ill
for people who had hurt her children.

"Those ball dresses!" Jemima brought it out with a despairing sob. "How
was I to know? The magazines didn't say anything about it, and nobody
told me. But all the other girls wore hats and high necks! Some of them
even had on coat suits!"

Kate stared. "Is that all?" Suddenly she threw back her head, and
laughed until she cried. She tried to stop, realizing that the thing was
no less than a tragedy to ambitious Jemima. But the relief after what
she had feared for them was too great.

"It seems to