it appeared also to be under the influence of curious intuitions and
knowledges. Pemberton rather disliked precocity and was disappointed to
find gleams of it in a disciple not yet in his teens. Nevertheless he
divined on the spot that Morgan wouldn't prove a bore. He would prove on
the contrary a source of agitation. This idea held the young man, in
spite of a certain repulsion.

"You pompous little person! We're not extravagant!" Mrs. Moreen gaily
protested, making another unsuccessful attempt to draw the boy to her
side. "You must know what to expect," she went on to Pemberton.

"The less you expect the better!" her companion interposed. "But we
_are_ people of fashion."

"Only so far as _you_ make us so!" Mrs. Moreen tenderly mocked. "Well
then, on Friday--don't tell me you're superstitious--and mind you don't
fail us. Then you'll see us all. I'm so sorry the girls are out. I
guess you'll like the girls. And, you know, I've another son, quite
different from this one."

"He tries to imitate me," Morgan said to their friend.

"He tries? Why he's twenty years old!" cried Mrs. Moreen.

"You're very witty," Pemberton remarked to the child--a proposition his
mother echoed with enthusiasm, declaring Morgan's sallies to be the
delight of the house.

The boy paid no heed to this; he only enquired abruptly of the visitor,
who was surprised afterwards that he hadn't struck him as offensively