"Do you--often have parties?" she asked.

"I never had one before. I'll have them, though, from now on if--if you
will come!"

Truedale paused with his arms full of pitchers and platters of food, and
held the girl with his admiring eyes.

"And you will let me come and see you--you and your sister and your
father? I know all about you. White has explained--everything. He--"

Nella-Rose braced herself against the table and quietly and definitely
outlined their future relations.

"No, you cannot come to see us-all. You don't know Marg. If she doesn't
find things out, there won't be trouble; when she does find things out
there's goin' t' be a right smart lot of trouble brewing!"

This was said with such comical seriousness that Truedale laughed
again, but sobered instantly when he recalled the incident of the white
bantam which Jim had so vividly portrayed.

"But you see," he replied, "I don't want to let you go after this first
party, and never see you again!"

The girl shrugged her shoulders and apparently dismissed the matter. She
sat down and, with charming abandon, began to eat. Presently Truedale,
amused and interested, spoke again:

"It would be very unkind of you not to let me see you."