s might----"

"Let them dare!" says Miss Vee, straightenin' up and glancin' around
haughty. My! but she's a thoroughbred! There was one group standin' a
little way off watchin' us; but that look of Miss Vee's scattered 'em as
though she'd turned the hose on them. Next minute she was smilin'
again. "You see," she goes on, sittin' close, "I'm not much afraid."

"You're a hummer, you are!" says I, lookin' her over approvin'.

"There, there!" says she. "I see that you must have something to eat
right away. Here, Hortense! There! Now you'll have a cup of tea, won't
you?"

"Anything you pass out goes with me," says I, "even to tea."

It was my first offense in the oolong line, and, honest, I couldn't tell
now how it tasted; but I knew all about how Vee handles a cup and
saucer, though, and the way she has of lookin' at you over the rim. Say,
she's the only girl I ever knew who could talk more'n a minute to a
feller without the aid of giggles. There's some sense to what she has to
say, too, and all the way you can tell whether she's joshin' or not is
by watchin' her eyes. And me, I wa'n't losin' any tricks.

She tells me all about how she's been to school here ever since she was
a little girl. Seems she's as shy on parents as I am; but she has an
aunt that she lives with between school terms. This is her finishin'
year, and as soon as the final doin's are over she and Aunty are due to
sail for Europe.

"Coming back in September?" says I.

"Oh, no indeed!" says she. "Perhaps not for two years."

"Gee!" says I.

"Well?" says she, and I finds myself lookin' square into them big gray
eyes of hers.

"Oh, nothing," says I; "only--only it sounds a long ways off. And, say,
you don't happen to have a spare photo, do you, maybe one taken in that
dress you wore the night of the ball?"

"Silly!" says she. "But suppose I have?"

"Why," says I,--"why, I thought--well, say, it wouldn't do any harm to
leave my new address, would it! That's the number, care of Mrs. Zenobia
Preble."

"Zenobia!" says she. "Why, I know who she is. Do you live with----"

"I'm half adopted already," says I. "Bully old girl, ain't she? And say,
Miss Vee----"

It was just about then I had the feelin' that some one was tryin' to
butt in on this two-part dialogue of ours, and as I looks up, sure
enough there's Mr. Robert, with his eyes wide and his mouth half open,
watchin' us.

"Well, it's all over," says I. "Mr. Robert's waitin' for me. Good luc