have I so far offended you that you are so ungracious to me this
evening, Iris?" he murmured, reproachfully.

"I do not know that I am any different to-night from what I have always
been," pouted the beauty. "I simply do not feel like singing, that is
all."

"You have changed your mood very suddenly, Iris," he declared. "You
asked me to come into the drawing-room to hear you sing, and now you
tell me that you have changed your mind. What am I to think?"

"Whatever you please," she answered, curtly.

"Tell me one thing, Iris," he murmured, a little hoarsely, bending
nearer over the pretty, willful coquette; "were the words of the song
you intended to sing suggestive of a sudden coldness between two very
near and very dear friends?"

"I will not listen to you!" cried Iris, petulantly.

"I repeat, what have I done to offend you, my dear girl?" he cried.

"Say to yourself that it was surely not my intention nor my will. You
asked me to come to the library to listen to some poems. When I stepped
into the room I saw at a glance that you had quite forgotten the
appointment, Harry, by the picture that met my glance."

He knew in an instant to what she referred--he sitting in the arm-chair
with Dorothy by his side, her arms twined about him.

"I did not ask her in there, Iris," he said, huskily. "I found her in
there when I entered the apartment. She was evidently waiting for me.
She met me with tears and reproaches, and if there is anything that is
detestable to a man it is that line of conduct, believe me."

Iris shrugged her shoulders, but made no reply.

"Why did you not come in when you came to the door?" he asked, bending
dangerously near the fatally beautiful face so near his own.

"Because I thought that two was company--three would be a crowd," she
responded, proudly tossing back her jetty curls.

"_You_ would always be welcome to _me_, Iris," he said, huskily. "You
know that but too well by this time, don't you?" and his hand closed
tightly over the one lying lightly in her lap, and his head drooped
nearer still.

"Great Scott! they are almost kissing each other, the two vipers!"
panted Katy to herself, her blood fairly boiling in her veins at the
sight of this billing and cooing. "Oh, if I only dared put poor Miss
Dorothy on her guard!"

She could not refrain from bursting in upon them at this critical
instant, and in less time than it takes to tell it she had bounded into
the room.

"A-hem, a-he