she
could be, every minute of the time. I guess she didn't like Mrs. Corey
any too well from the start, and she couldn't seem to act like herself."

"Tell me about it, mamma," said Irene, dropping into a chair.

Mrs. Corey described the interview to her husband on her return home.
"Well, and what are your inferences?" he asked.

"They were extremely embarrassed and excited--that is, the mother. I
don't wish to do her injustice, but she certainly behaved consciously."

"You made her feel so, I dare say, Anna. I can imagine how terrible
you must have been in the character of an accusing spirit, too
lady-like to say anything. What did you hint?"

"I hinted nothing," said Mrs. Corey, descending to the weakness of
defending herself. "But I saw quite enough to convince me that the
girl is in love with Tom, and the mother knows it."

"That was very unsatisfactory. I supposed you went to find out whether
Tom was in love with the girl. Was she as pretty as ever?"

"I didn't see her; she was not at home; I saw her sister."

"I don't know that I follow you quite, Anna. But no matter. What was
the sister like?"

"A thoroughly disagreeable young woman."

"What did she do?"

"Nothing. She's far too sly for that. But that was the impression."

"Then you didn't find her so amusing as Tom does?"

"I found her pert. There's no other word for it. She says things to
puzzle you and put you out."

"Ah, that was worse than pert, Anna; that was criminal. Well, let us
thank heaven the younger one is so pretty."

Mrs. Corey did not reply directly. "Bromfield," she said, after a
moment of troubled silence, "I have been thinking over your plan, and I
don't see why it isn't the right thing."

"What is my plan?" inquired Bromfield Corey.

"A dinner."

Her husband began to laugh. "Ah, you overdid the accusing-spirit
business, and this is reparation." But Mrs. Corey hurried on, with
combined dignity and anxiety--

"We can't ignore Tom's intimacy with them--it amounts to that; it will
probably continue even if it's merely a fancy, and we must seem to know
it; whatever comes of it, we can't disown it. They are very simple,
unfashionable people, and unworldly; but I can't say that they are
offensive, unless--unless," she added, in propitiation of her husband's
smile, "unless the father--how did you find the father?" she implored.

"He will be very entertaining," said Corey, "if you start him on his
paint. What