my girls?" thought poor Mrs. Brown. "For the
last week they have been like naughty children."

When Molly and her mother were having the little confidential talk
recorded above, the elder lady did not realize that two American mails
had come and that neither Judy nor Molly had received the bulky epistles
that they usually did,--Judy one from Kentucky, and Molly one from
Wellington. This was the cause of their unreasonable tempers. And had
she but known it, on the other side of the Atlantic her own son Kent was
eaten up with the green-eyed monster all because Judy had mentioned the
name of Kinsella six times in her last letter! And he, Kent, had only
that morning called his brother Paul "a conceited ass" because Paul had
on a cravat to match his socks; and he had been equally unreasonable
with a misguided waiter who brought him macaroni when he ordered
spaghetti.

As for the dignified Professor Green, he had actually "hollered" at a
poor freshman who had in reading some poetry pronounced "unshed tears"
as though unshed were in one syllable. "'Unched tears', I could almost
shed them," said the much-tried teacher; and all because a certain Molly
Brown had a cousin Philippe who was kind enough to see that she heard
all the lectures worth while at the Sorbonne.

Mrs. Brown decided to take Molly into her confidence and divulge to her
her ideas concerning Elise and Mr. Kinsella. Molly was astonished and
delighted.

"Oh, mother, how wise you are and how blind I am! I realize now how
Elise must have suffered and all for nothing. I just know Mr. Kinsella
adores her. I see it all. He went off just because he thought Elise was
serious about Philippe and he could not stay to see it. How I wish he
would come back and it could all be set right, and dear Elise could make
up to him for all the suffering her mother caused him! I do wish I could
put a flea in Judy's ear and she would behave."

"But you must not do that, my dear," said Mrs. Brown. "That would not be
quite fair to Elise. You see it is only surmise on our part."

"Right as usual, mother, but it is going to be hard to see things going
wrong when a word would right them. Judy means no harm and is really
doing nothing. She takes long walks with Mr. Kinsella and Pierce, and
Mr. Kinsella delights in Judy's frankness and originality. He likes to
be with her, but as for thinking of her in any other light than as
Pierce's playmate,--I don't believe it has entered his head."