e score of a headache.

"Poor creature!" observed grandma, "I think she's afraid of a attack
of her old complaint, she looks that terrible bad, and don't take
interest in anythink. She wants rousin' out of herself more. She ain't
a girl that will confide anythink to one, but her uncle is comin' up
again to-morrer, an' I think I'll speak to him."

When Carry, Dawn, and I arrived at the Citizens' Hall, Ernest was
already waiting to act groom, while Larry Witcom also accidentally
hovered near. He quite as casually took possession of Carry, so there
was nothing for a common individual like myself but to become
extremely self-absorbed, so that my keen observation might not be an
interception of any interest likely to circulate between the knight
and the lady. The latter seemed to be in one of her contrary moods, so
attached herself to me like a barnacle, settled me in a seat one from
the wall, and peremptorily indicating to Ernest that he was to take
the one against it, put herself carefully away from him on the
outside. A wag would have arranged the party to suit himself, but that
was beyond Ernest. He meekly sat down beside me, with a helplessness
possible only to the sturdiest athlete in the room when in the hands
of a fair and wilful maid. I could have come to his rescue, but deemed
it wiser not to thrust him upon Dawn for the present. We had arrived
very early, so there was time for conversation. Encouraged by me,
Ernest leant forward and addressed a few remarks to Dawn, which she
received so coolly that he distraitly talked to me instead, and as
people began to gather, above the majority towered the fair head and
striking profile of him I had first seen dealing in pumpkins, and who
was colloquially known as "Dora" Eweword. Dawn beckoned him to the
seat beside her, which he took with alacrity, a rollicking laugh and a
crimsoning face, which, in conjunction with a double chin, bespoke the
further partnership of a large and well-satisfied appetite.

"I haven't seen you for an age," said Dawn with unusual graciousness.

"Are you sure you wanted to see me?" he inquired, with an amorous
look.

Dawn used her bewitching eyes of blue in a laughing glance.

"You know you only have to give me the wink and you'll see me as often
as you want," straightforwardly confessed "Dora"; but Dawn having
encouraged him to a certain distance, had a mind to bring him no
nearer.

"I don't care if I never saw you again," she said bluntly