y stuff'd be the mischief to get away with with a fork."

Archibald Chesney wouldn't have talked that way. But, nevertheless,
Missy let her eyelids lift up at him in a smile.

"I'm glad you didn't know it was a mistake," she murmured. "I was
TERRIBLY mortified."

"Girls are funny," Mr. Brown replied to that. "Always worrying over
nothing." He returned her smile. "But YOU needn't ever worry."

What did he mean by that? But something in his dark eyes, gazing at her
full, kept Missy from asking the question, made her swiftly lower her
lashes.

"I bet YOU could start eating with a toothpick and get away with it," he
went on.

Did he mean her social savoir-faire--or did he mean--

Just then the butler appeared at her left hand to remove the cocktail
course. She felt emboldened to remark, with an air of ease:

"Oh, Saunders, don't forget to lay the spoons when you serve the
demi-tasses."

Mr. Brown laughed.

"Oh, say!" he chortled, "you ARE funny when you hand out that
highfalutin stuff!"

No; he surely hadn't meant admiration for her savoir-faire; yet, for
some reason, Missy didn't feel disappointed. She blushed, and found it
entrancingly difficult to lift her eyelids.

The function, rather stiffly and quite impressively, continued its way
without further contretemps. It was, according to the most aristocratic
standards, highly successful. To be sure, after the guests had filed
solemnly from the table and began to dance on the porches, something of
the empressement died away; but Missy was finding Mr. Brown too good
a dancer to remember to be critical. She forgot altogether, now, to
compare him with the admired Archibald.

Missy danced with Mr. Brown so much that Raymond Bonner grew openly
sulky. Missy liked Raymond, and she was sure she would never want to do
anything unkind--yet why, at the obvious ill temper of Raymond Bonner,
did she feel a strange little delicious thrill?

Oh, she was having a glorious time!

Once she ran across father, lurking unobtrusively in a shadowed corner.

"Well," he remarked, "I see that Missy's come back for a
breathing-spell."

Just what did father mean by that?

But she was having too good a time to wonder long. Too good a time to
remember whether or not it was in the baronial spirit. She was entirely
uncritical when, the time for good nights finally at hand, Mr. Brown
said to her:

"Well, a fine time was had by all! I guess I don't have to tell YOU
that--what?"