ng or insinuating that he was trifling with
her, it was simply outrageous--outrageous, and if Aunt Lawrence dared to
let him suppose it was his duty to propose to her now she'd never
forgive her,--never. And so Aunt Lawrence discovered that her blithe,
merry, joyous niece of the years gone by had developed a fine temper of
her own and a capacity for independent thought and action that was
simply appalling.

Florence went dancing down into the parlor with flushed cheeks and
briny, indignant eyes and the mien of an offended five-foot goddess,
leaving Aunt Lawrence to the contemplation of the field of her
disastrous defeat and the card of the unworthy object of their
discussion:

[Illustration: _Mr. Benton Floyd Forrest,_ --th Regiment of Infantry,
U.S.A.]

"What on earth brings him here at this time of day?" quoth she, irate
and ruffled. "For a man who is neither lover nor fiance, he assumes the
airs and, for aught I know, the rights of both. The girl is as
ill-balanced as her mother." And not all women, it must be owned, think
too well of an only brother's wife. "The manners of these army men are
simply uncouth. Who ever heard of calls at ten A.M.?"

It was but a few minutes before Miss Allison returned. In fact, she did
not return to the scene of the late struggle,--a lovely boudoir
overlooking the flashing blue waters of the lake from high over the
intervening boulevard. Miss Allison went direct to her own rooms on the
opposite side of the broad hall-way, and not until evening was Mrs.
Lawrence favored with explanation.

"Why are you not dressed?" she somewhat caustically inquired, as her
niece came down arrayed for dinner.

For answer Miss Allison contemplated her pretty white arms, and took a
backward and downward glance at the fall of the trailing skirt of heavy
silk, then--must it be recorded?--she calmly asked, "What's the matter
with this?"

"This," said Aunt Lawrence, with marked emphasis, "may do for home
dinners, but won't for an opera-party. Here it is seven. You can't
change your dress before eight, and you simply can't go to the
Langdons' box in that."

"I'm not going to the Langdons' box."

"You were, and Mr. Forrest was to dine here and take you."

"Mr. Forrest left for the West on sudden orders at noon, and came at ten
to tell me."

Mrs. Lawrence's hands and eyes went up in mad dismay. "You don't mean to
tell me you've given up going because that man's ordered off? Child,
child, you are s