gymnastics of his parent with respectful astonishment.

"Come and take a turn, my lad. Rose is fresh as a daisy, but we old
fellows soon get enough of it, so you shall have my place," said his
father, wiping his face, which glowed like a cheerful peony.

"No, thank you, sir I can't stand that sort of thing. I'll race you
round the piazza with pleasure, Cousin, but his oven is too much for
me," was Mac's uncivil reply as he backed toward the open window, as if
glad of an excuse to escape.

"Fragile creature, don't stay on my account, I beg. I can't leave my
guests for a moonlight run, even if I dared to take it on a frosty night
in a thin dress," said Rose, fanning herself and not a bit ruffled by
Mac's refusal, for she knew his ways and they amused her.

"Not half so bad as all this dust, gas, heat, and noise. What do you
suppose lungs are made of?" demanded Mac, ready for a discussion then
and there.

"I used to know, but I've forgotten now. Been so busy with other things
that I've neglected the hobbies I used to ride five or six years ago,"
she said, laughing.

"Ah, those were times worth having! Are you going in for much of
this sort of thing, Rose?" he asked with a disapproving glance at the
dancers.

"About three months of it, I think."

"Then good-bye till New Year." And Mac vanished behind the curtains.

"Rose, my dear, you really must take that fellow in hand before he gets
to be quite a bear. Since you have been gone he has lived in his books
and got on so finely that we have let him alone, though his mother
groans over his manners. Polish him up a bit, I beg of you, for it is
high time he mended his odd ways and did justice to the fine gifts he
hides behind them," said Uncle Mac, scandalized at the bluntness of his
son.

"I know my chestnut burr too well to mind his prickles. But others do
not, so I will take him in hand and make him a credit to his family,"
answered Rose readily.

"Take Archie for your model he's one of a thousand, and the girl who
gets him gets a prize, I do assure you," added Uncle Mac, who found
matchmaking to his taste and thought that closing remark a deep one.

"Oh, me, how tired I am!" cried Rose, dropping into a chair as the last
carriage rolled away somewhere between one and two.

"What is your opinion now, Miss Campbell?" asked the doctor, addressing
her for the first time by the name which had been uttered so often that
night.

"My opinion is that Miss Campbell is