He looked at me, and said: 

“I’m rather flabergasted, Bab.  I—­what ought I to say, anyhow?”

He came very close, dear Dairy, and sudenly I saw in his eyes the horible truth.  He thought me in Love with him, and sending for him while the Familey was out.

Words cannot paint my agony of Soul.  I stepped back, but he siezed my hand, in a caresing gesture.

“Bab!” he said.  “Dear little Bab!”

Had my afections not been otherwise engaged, I should have thriled at his accents.  But, although handsome and of good familey, although poor, I could not see it that way.

So I drew my hand away, and retreated behind a sofa.

“We must have an understanding, Carter” I Said.  “I have sent for you, but not for the reason you seem to think.  I am in desparate Trouble.”

He looked dumfounded.

“Trouble!” he said.  “You!  Why, little Bab”

“If you don’t mind,” I put in, rather petishly, because of not being little, “I wish you would treat me like almost a debutante, if not entirely.  I am not a child in arms.”

“You are sweet enough to be, if the arms might be mine.”

I have puzled over this, since, dear Dairy.  Because there must be some reason why men fall in Love with me.  I am not ugly, but I am not beautifull, my noze being too short.  And as for clothes, I get none except Leila’s old things.  But Jane Raleigh says there are women like that.  She has a couzin who has had four Husbands and is beginning on a fifth, although not pretty and very slovenly, but with a mass of red hair.

Are all men to be my Lovers?

“Carter,” I said earnestly, “I must tell you now that I do not care for you—­in that way.”

“What made you send for me, then?”

“Good gracious!” I exclaimed, losing my temper somwhat.  “I can send for the ice man without his thinking I’m crazy about him, can’t I?”

“Thanks.”

“The truth is,” I said, sitting down and motioning him to a seat in my maturest manner, “I—­I want some money.  There are many things, but the Money comes first.”

He just sat and looked at me with his mouth open.

“Well,” he said at last, “of course—­I suppose you know you’ve come to a Bank that’s gone into the hands of a reciever.  But aside from that, Bab, it’s a pretty mean trick to send for me and let me think—­well, no matter about that.  How much do you want?”

“I can pay it back as soon as father comes home,” I said, to releive his mind.  It is against my principals to borow money, especialy from one who has little or none.  But since I was doing it, I felt I might as well ask for a lot.

“Could you let me have ten dollars?” I said, in a faint tone.

He drew a long breath.

“Well, I guess yes,” he observed.  “I thought you were going to touch me for a hundred, anyhow.  I—­I suppose you wouldn’t give me a kiss and call it square.”