mind that she would not think anything of it, that
he had kissed her often when they were children, and it was the same
thing now. As he went away he glanced back at the lighted windows,
and a man's shadow was quite evident. He wondered who was calling on
Lily's mother, and then wondered, with a slight shadow of jealousy,
if it could be some one who had come to see Lily herself. He
reflected, as he went homeward through the storm, that a girl as
pretty as Lily ought to have some one worthy of her. He went over in
his mind, as he puffed his cigar, all the young men in Amity, and it
did not seem to him that any one of them was quite the man for her.

When he reached home he found his mother already there, warming
herself by the sitting-room register. She had gone to the tea-party
in a carriage (George would not have her walk), but she was chilled.
She was a delicate, pretty woman. She looked up, shivering, as George
entered.

"Where have you been, dear?" she asked.

George laughed, and colored a little. "Well, mother, I went to see
one young lady and saw another," he replied.

Just then the maid came in with some hot chocolate, which Mrs. Ramsey
always drank before she went to bed, and she asked no more questions
until the girl had gone; then she resumed the conversation.

"What do you mean, dear?" she inquired, looking over the rim of the
china cup at her son, with a slight, anxious contraction of her
forehead.

"Well, I felt a little lonely after you went, mother, and I had
nothing especial to do, and it occurred to me that I would go over
and call on our neighbor."

"On young Maria Edgham?"

"Yes, mother."

"Well, I suppose it was a polite thing for you to do," said his
mother, mildly, "but I don't quite care for her has I do for some
girls. She is so very vehement. I do like a young girl to be gentle."

"Well, I didn't see her, mother, in either a gentle or vehement
mood," said George. "As nearly as I can find out, she had a
premonition who it was when I rang the door-bell, and said she had a
headache, and ran up-stairs to bed."

"Why, how do you know?" asked his mother, staring at him. "Her aunt
was at the tea. Who told you?"

"Lily Merrill was there," replied George, and again he was conscious
of coloring. "She had come to stay with Maria because her aunt was
going out. She answered my ring, and so I made a little call on her
until Miss Stillman returned, and was so surprised to see her
premises inv