listen," said Amy Duckworth, pointedly.

"My dear, you'll converse all the more brilliantly this afternoon for a
brief period of silence now," said Bell, sweetly. "Mr. De Forest, you are
not happy in your guesses."

"I have exhausted them, unless it is to be a _musicale_."

"No. That's what we are going to have to-morrow ourselves. I sing,
you know."

"Do you? Well, a garden party perhaps?"

"That's what the Ripleys are going to have Thursday."

"Then, so far as I can see, there is nothing left for it to be except a
failure," said De Forest, lifting his arms off the gate. "And, in view of
so much coming dissipation, I feel constrained to retire and seek a
little preparatory repose. Good-morning, Miss Masters."

"How hateful not to introduce him, Bell! And when he distinctly asked
you to! How abominably mean of you! How selfish, how horrid! _I_
wouldn't have done so," broke out in an indignant chorus, as the
gentleman walked off.

"Do you think I would be such a goose as to go shares in the handsomest
man Joppa ever laid eyes on, so long as I can keep him to myself?" said
Bell, honestly. "Fish for yourselves, girls. The sea is open to all, and
you may each land another as good."