sively; and she was disturbed, realizing in what tricky stuff she
dealt. What had been on her lips to say was, "Because it's
happened before!" She changed to, "Because it's so easy to spoil
anything--easiest of all to spoil anything that's pleasant."

"That might depend."

"No; it's so. And if you care at all about--about knowing a girl who'd
like someone to know her----"

"Just 'someone?' That's disappointing."

"Well--you," she said.

"Tell me how 'careful' you want me to be, then!"

"Well, don't you think it would be nice if you didn't give anybody the
chance to talk about me the way--the way I've just been talking about
Henrietta Lamb?"

With that they laughed together, and he said, "You may be cutting me off
from a great deal of information, you know."

"Yes," Alice admitted. "Somebody might begin to praise me to you, too;
so it's dangerous to ask you to change the subject if I ever happen to
be mentioned. But after all----" She paused.

"'After all' isn't the end of a thought, is it?"

"Sometimes it is of a girl's thought; I suppose men are neater about
their thoughts, and always finish 'em. It isn't the end of the thought I
had then, though."

"What is the end of it?"

She looked at him impulsively. "Oh, it's foolish," she said, and she
laughed as laughs one who proposes something probably impossible. "But,
WOULDN'T it be pleasant if two people could ever just keep themselves
TO themselves, so far as they two were concerned? I mean, if they could
just manage to be friends without people talking about it, or talking to
THEM about it?"

"I suppose that might be rather difficult," he said, more amused than
impressed by her idea.

"I don't know: it might be done," she returned, hopefully. "Especially
in a town of this size; it's grown so it's quite a huge place these
days. People can keep themselves to themselves in a big place better,
you know. For instance, nobody knows that you and I are taking a walk
together today."

"How absurd, when here we are on exhibition!"

"No; we aren't."

"We aren't?"

"Not a bit of it!" she laughed. "We were the other day, when you walked
home with me, but anybody could tell that had just happened by chance,
on account of your overtaking me; people can always see things like
that. But we're not on exhibition now. Look where I've led you!"

Amused and a little bewildered, he looked up and down the street,
which was one of gaunt-faced apartment-houses, old, soot