things from ourselves. They think so...
so"--Johanna hesitated for a word--"so laxly on earnest subjects. And
it is telling on Ephie--Look, for instance, at Mr. Dove! I don't want
to say anything against him, in particular. He is really more serious
than the rest. But for some time now, he has been making himself
ridiculous,"--Johanna had blushed for Dove on the occasion of his last
visit. "No one could be more in earnest than he is; but Ephie only
makes fun of him, in a heartless way. She won't see what a grave matter
it is to him."

Mrs. Cayhill laughed, not at all displeased. "Young people will be
young people. You can't put old heads on young shoulders, Joan, or shut
them up in separate houses. Ephie is an extremely pretty girl, and it
will be the same wherever we go.--As for young Dove, he knows well
enough that nothing can come of it, and if he chooses to continue his
attentions, why, he must take the consequences--that's all. Absurd!--a
boy and girl flirtation, and to make so much of it! A mountain of a
molehill, as usual. And half the time, you only imagine things, and
don't see what is going on under your very nose. Anyone but you, I'm
sure, would find more to object to in the way young Guest behaves than
Dove."

"Maurice Guest?" said Johanna, and laid her hands with stocking and
needle on the table.

"Yes, Maurice Guest," repeated Mrs. Cayhill, with complacent mockery.
"Do you think no one has eyes but yourself?--No, Joan, you're not sharp
enough. Just look at the way he went on last night! Every one but you
could see what was the matter with him. Mrs. Tully told me about it
afterwards. Why, he never took his eyes off her."

"Oh, I'm sure you are mistaken," said Johanna earnestly, and was silent
from sheer surprise. "He has been here so seldom of late," she added
after a pause, thinking aloud.

"Just for that very reason," replied Mrs. Cayhill, with the same air of
wisdom. "A nice-minded young man stays away, if he sees that his
feelings are not returned, or if he has no position to offer.--And
another thing I'll tell you, Joan, though you do think yourself so
clever. You don't need to worry if Ephie is odd and fidgety sometimes
just now. At her age, it's only to be expected. You know very well what
I mean. All girls go through the same thing. You did yourself."

After this, she took up her book again, having, she knew, successfully
silenced her daughter, who, on matters of this nature, was extremely