“Was it a bad fight?”

“Awful.”  In spite of herself, Cicely laughed at the recollection.  “He wound up by telling me that I was no lady, and he didn’t care to have anything more to do with me.  Since then I have hardly had a glimpse of him.”

“I hadn’t noticed that anything was wrong between you,” Theodora said thoughtfully.

“No; we both of us are old enough not to quarrel in public.  But I can’t see any end to this.  I care for Allyn a great deal, and I miss him; but if he does not want me for a friend, I can’t force him to take me.  I’m not a pill, to be swallowed whether or no.”

“Perhaps I could help a little.”

Cicely shook her head.

“No; we were the ones to fight, and now we must be the ones to make up, without any go-betweens.  Papa has always told me that dignity doesn’t count in a case like this; and I’m willing to do anything reasonable.  The only trouble is that I don’t know what Allyn really wants.  If he truly does wish I would let him alone, I don’t see any use in my hanging on to him.  Just once, more than a month ago, he said something that made me think he cared, and was glad to have me here; but it was only once, and maybe I was mistaken.  It isn’t forever since you were a girl, Cousin Theodora.  What did you do in such cases?”

Theodora rapidly reviewed her past.

“I think I never had just such a case, Cicely,” she said honestly.  “Hu and Billy were my two best friends; and I don’t think either one of them ever had a cross-grained day in his life.  I was generally the aggressor, myself.”

Cicely rubbed her head against Theodora’s knee in mute contradiction.

“But what should you do in my case?” she persisted.

“I don’t know.  Sometimes I can’t tell what to do in my own.  Allyn is rather a puzzle.”

“He’s worse than an original proposition in geometry.  I want to solve him and I can’t.  Papa has always taught me that we girls have a good deal of responsibility, and that we can help our boy friends a good deal, or else hinder them.  Perhaps I am conceited; but it seems to me as if I could help Allyn, if I could get at him.  Besides—­” she hesitated.

“Well?” Theodora said encouragingly.

“Oh, it’s silly to tell; but sometimes I wonder whether it wouldn’t help you a little, at the same time.  I’d love to feel it did; you have been so good to me.  I know you worry about Allyn.  You watch him as a cat watches a mouse, and you always seem to understand his queer ways and know just how to manage him.  I wish I could do it as you do.”

Theodora was silent for a moment.  Then she bent down and laid her cheek against the brown chair.