We're so dreadfully poor, and Cora has to struggle so for what
good times she----"

"Her?" the boy jibed bitterly. "I don't see her doing any
particular struggling." He waved his hand in a wide gesture. "She
takes it _all_!"

"There, there!" the mother said, and, as if feeling the need of
placating this harsh judge, continued gently: "Cora isn't strong,
Hedrick, and she does have a hard time. Almost every one of the
other girls in her set is at the seashore or somewhere having a
gay summer. You don't realize, but it's mortifying to have to be
the only one to stay at home, with everybody knowing it's because
your father can't afford to send her. And this house is so
hopeless," Mrs. Madison went on, extending her plea hopefully;
"it's impossible to make it attractive, but Cora keeps trying and
trying: she was all morning on her knees gilding those chairs for
the music-room, poor child, and----"

"`Music-room'!" sneered the boy. "Gilt chairs! All show-off!
That's all she ever thinks about. It's all there is to Cora, just
show-off, so she'll get a string o' fellows chasin' after her.
She's started for this Corliss just exactly the way she did for
Ray Vilas!"

"Hedrick!"

"Just look at her!" he cried vehemently. "Don't you know she's
tryin' to make this Corliss think it's _her_ playin' the piano
right now?"