coming, and from the way they were talking we saw something
interesting was surely happening, had happened, or was going to
happen.

"Hide the gingham, Roxanne, while I slip over the wall and change my
dress," I said quickly. "Our business arrangements are nobody else's
business."

"Will you come right back?" asked Roxanne in a way that made me know
she would worry if I didn't.

I would rather have stayed at home until the girls had had their visit
and gone home, but I have thought out just how I ought to act about
Roxanne and her friends and me. It is only fair to pay no attention to
how they feel, but to do what makes Roxanne happy in case of the
mix-up of us all. My pride and Roxanne's are different. Hers has been
handed down for generations and she can act on it without argument
with herself, but mine is my own kind and only I understand it. It is
new and I have to plan it out by thinking. The girls all think that
because I have finer clothes and travel and am rich, that I think I am
better than they are and am proud of it. Richness is not my fault, any
more than a hunched back would be, and it is my duty to forget it
whether they do or not. I act accordingly.

Another thing: I believe something is making my father see the error
of his ways and I hope that some day I will see him settled into being
a good and great man just like Judge Luttrell and the Colonel are and
Roxanne's father was. He has acted in a peculiar way just lately. Last
night he drew me up close to him and stood by the window a long time
without speaking.