at some curve in the highway she met another.

Lilah was challenging her audience. "And now you see why I was dreadful
Lilah. I fit the name they had for me, don't I?"

Her question was put at Porter, and he answered it. "It is women who set
the pace for us," he said; "if they adventure, we venture. If they lead,
we follow."

General Dick broke in. With his halo of white hair and his pink face, he
looked like an indignant cherub. "The way you young people treat serious
subjects is appalling;" then he felt his little daughter's hand upon his
arm.

"Lilah is always saying things that she doesn't mean, Dad. Please don't
take her seriously."

"Nobody takes me seriously," said Lilah, "and that's why nobody knows me
as I really am."

"I know you," said her father, "and you're like a little mare that I used
to drive out on the ranch. As long as I'd let her have her head, she was
lovely. But let me try to curb her, and she'd kick over the traces."

They all laughed at that; then their tea came, and a great plate of
toast, and the conversation grew intermittent and less interesting.

Yet the man at the other table had his attention again arrested when
Lilah said to Porter, as she drew on her gloves: