ix 'em any way you want.
Hurry! It's got to be a busy day."

She had bought three dozen little roses. Alice took them and began to
arrange them in vases, keeping the stems separated as far as possible so
that the clumps would look larger. She put half a dozen in each of three
vases in the "living-room," placing one vase on the table in the center
of the room, and one at each end of the mantelpiece. Then she took the
rest of the roses to the dining-room; but she postponed the arrangement
of them until the table should be set, just before dinner. She was
thoughtful; planning to dry the stems and lay them on the tablecloth
like a vine of roses running in a delicate design, if she found that the
dozen and a half she had left were enough for that. If they weren't she
would arrange them in a vase.

She looked a long time at the little roses in the basin of water, where
she had put them; then she sighed, and went away to heavier tasks,
while her mother worked in the kitchen with Malena. Alice dusted the
"living-room" and the dining-room vigorously, though all the time with a
look that grew more and more pensive; and having dusted everything, she
wiped the furniture; rubbed it hard. After that, she washed the floors
and the woodwork.

Emerging from the kitchen at noon, Mrs. Adams found her daughter on
hands and knees, scrubbing the bases of the columns between the hall and
the "living-room."

"Now, dearie," she said, "you mustn't tire yourself out, and you'd
better come and eat something. Your father said he'd get a bite
down-town to-day--he was going down to the bank--and Walter eats
down-town all the time lately, so I thought we wouldn't bother to set
the table for lunch. Come on and we'll have something in the kitchen."

"No," Alice said, dully, as she went on with the work. "I don't want
anything."

Her mother came closer to her. "Why, what's the matter?" she asked,
briskly. "You seem kind of pale, to me; and you don't look--you don't
look HAPPY."

"Well----" Alice began, uncertainly, but said no more.

"See here!" Mrs. Adams exclaimed. "This is all just for you! You ought
to be ENJOYING it. Why, it's the first time we've--we've entertained
in I don't know how long! I guess it's almost since we had that little
party when you were eighteen. What's the matter with you?"

"Nothing. I don't know."

"But, dearie, aren't you looking FORWARD to this evening?"

The girl looked up, showing a pallid and solemn face. "Oh