Then Grace suddenly remembered that Marian’s mother had left Oakdale three weeks before on a three months’ visit to a sister in a distant city.

“That deceitful old Henry Hammond is at the bottom of this,” Grace decided.  “He has probably put those ideas of dressing up into Marian’s head.  She needs some one to look after her.  I’ll ask mother if she can stay with me until her mother returns, that is if I can persuade her to come.”

“Come out of your brown study, Grace,” called Hippy.  “I want you to settle an argument that has arisen between Miss O’Malley and myself.  Never before have we had an argument.  Timid, gentle creature that she is, she has always deferred to my superior intellect, but now—­”

“Yes,” retorted Nora scornfully, “now, he has been routed with slaughter, and so he has to call upon other people to rescue him from the fruits of his own folly.”

“I am not asking aid,” averred Hippy with dignity.  “I plead for simple justice.”

“Simple, indeed,” interrupted David with a twinkle in his eye.

“I see very plainly,” announced Hippy, “that I shall have to drop this O’Malley affair and defend myself against later unkind attacks.  But first I shall eat my dessert, then I shall have greater strength to renew the fray.”

“Then my services as a settler of arguments are not required,” laughed Grace.

“Postponed, merely postponed,” assured Hippy, and devoted himself assiduously to his dessert, refusing to be beguiled into further conversation.

Dinner over, the entire party repaired once more to the drawing room, where the young people performed for the judge’s especial benefit the stunts for which they were already famous.

Much to Grace’s annoyance, Henry Hammond attached himself to her, and try as she might she could not entirely rid herself of his attentions without absolute rudeness.  Tom Gray looked a trifle surprised at this, and Marian Barber seemed openly displeased.  Grace felt thoroughly out of patience, when toward the close of the evening, he approached her as she stood looking at a Japanese curio, and said: 

“I wish to thank you, Miss Harlowe, for inviting me to become a member of this house party.  I appreciate your invitation more than I can say.”

“I hope you will enjoy yourself, Mr. Hammond,” replied Grace rather coldly.

“There is little doubt of that,” was the ready answer.  “How well Marian is looking tonight.  I am surprised at the difference a really grown-up gown makes in her.”

Grace glanced at Marian, who in her eyes looked anything but well.

“Mr. Hammond,” she said slowly, looking straight at him.  “I do not in the least agree with you.  Marian is not yet eighteen, and tonight she looks like anything but the schoolgirl that she did this afternoon.  If her mother were at home I am sure that she would never allow Marian to have such a gown made, and I cannot fully understand what mischievous influence prompted her to make herself appear so utterly ridiculous to-night.”