“Oh, most adroitly, too!” laughed the girl.  “Only she couldn’t help unconsciously turning to look at me—­when she did it!”

“Mary Vertrees!”

“Never mind, mamma!  Mrs. Sheridan and Miss Sheridan neither of them could help unconsciously turning to look at me—­speculatively—­at the same time!  They all three kept looking at me and talking about the oldest son, Mr. James Sheridan, Junior.  Mrs. Sheridan said his father is very anxious ‘to get Jim to marry and settle down,’ and she assured me that ‘Jim is right cultivated.’  Another of the sons, the youngest one, caught me looking in the window this afternoon; but they didn’t seem to consider him quite one of themselves, somehow, though Mrs. Sheridan mentioned that a couple of years or so ago he had been ’right sick,’ and had been to some cure or other.  They seemed relieved to bring the subject back to ‘Jim’ and his virtues—­and to look at me!  The other brother is the middle one, Roscoe; he’s the one that owns the new house across the street, where that young black-sheep of the Lamhorns, Robert, goes so often.  I saw a short, dark young man standing on the porch with Robert Lamhorn there the other day, so I suppose that was Roscoe.  ‘Jim’ still lurks in the mists, but I shall meet him to-night.  Papa—­” She stepped nearer to him so that he had to face her, and his eyes were troubled as he did.  There may have been a trouble deep within her own, but she kept their surface merry with laughter.  “Papa, Bibbs is the youngest one’s name, and Bibbs —­to the best of our information—­is a lunatic.  Roscoe is married.  Papa, does it have to be Jim?”

“Mary!” Mrs. Vertrees cried, sharply.  “You’re outrageous!  That’s a perfectly horrible way of talking!”

“Well, I’m close to twenty-four,” said Mary, turning to her.  “I haven’t been able to like anybody yet that’s asked me to marry him, and maybe I never shall.  Until a year or so ago I’ve had everything I ever wanted in my life—­you and papa gave it all to me—­and it’s about time I began to pay back.  Unfortunately, I don’t know how to do anything—­but something’s got to be done.”

“But you needn’t talk of it like that!” insisted the mother, plaintively.  “It’s not—­it’s not—­”

“No, it’s not,” said Mary.  “I know that!”

“How did they happen to ask you to dinner?” Mr. Vertrees inquired, uneasily. “’Stextrawdn’ry thing!”

“Climbers’ hospitality,” Mary defined it.  “We were so very cordial and easy!  I think Mrs. Sheridan herself might have done it just as any kind old woman on a farm might ask a neighbor, but it was Miss Sheridan who did it.  She played around it awhile; you could see she wanted to—­she’s in a dreadful hurry to get into things—­and I fancied she had an idea it might impress that Lamhorn boy to find us there to-night.  It’s a sort of house-warming dinner, and they talked about it and talked about it—­and then the girl