because he didn't like Ellen mixing up with the Twirlers. When she
insisted, he said, all right, he'd go."

"Is that all?" Rosie asked.

"All!" echoed her mother. "Bless your heart, no! It's hardly the
beginning!"

Rosie sighed.

"Aw, Ma," Terry protested, "look at you! You're tiring Rosie all out and
it's only her first day home. Why don't you spit it out quick?"

"Terry, Terry, that's not a nice way to talk, telling your poor ma to
spit it out! Shame on you, lad, for using such a word!"

"Well, what happened at the ball?" Rosie begged.

"I was coming to that, Rosie dear, when Terry interrupted me. As I was
saying, who showed up at the ball quite unexpected-like but Larry Finn.
When Ellen saw Larry she turned to Jarge and says to him that, if he
wanted to go home early, he needn't wait for her, that Larry would take
care of her."

"Oh, Ma!" Rosie's eyes grew bright and her cheeks a deeper pink. "Do you
mean to say after letting poor Jarge take her and pay her admission she
turned around and treated him like that!"

Mrs. O'Brien lifted disclaiming hands. "Mind now, I'm not trying to
defend Ellen, but I do say she's only a young girl and young girls make
mistakes now and then."

"Well,"--Rosie tried to speak quietly--"what did Jarge do?"

"What did Jarge do? Something awful! Now remember, Rosie dear, I'm not
trying to run Jarge down. He's a nice fella and he's a kind fella and
I've never had a boarder that was so easy to please and, as I've told
you before, it was mighty good of him having his mother invite you and
Geraldine to the country. But I must say he did act something scandalous
that night."

Mrs. O'Brien paused to shake her head impressively and Rosie, in
desperation, appealed to Terence. "Tell me, Terry, what did he do?"

Terry grinned. "What did he do? Why, he laid for Larry Finn and, when
Larry and Ellen came out, he punched Larry's face for him!"

"It was something awful!" Mrs. O'Brien again declared. "Every day for a
week poor Larry had to carry a black eye with him down to the office.
And you know yourself the way other men laugh at a black eye. And he's
not been here to see Ellen since and Ellen's awful mad and, besides
that, no one else has been coming, for the word has gone out that
Jarge'll kill any fella that's fool enough to be showin' his face."

"Well, it's just good for her, too!" Ellen's unexpected plight was the
one thing in the whole situation that gave Rosie any satisfactio