him to talk to! He's spoiled. He's so used to being called `the
most popular man in town' and knowing that every girl on Corliss
Street wanted to marry him----" She broke off, and exclaimed
sharply: "I wish they would!"

"Cora!"

"Oh, I suppose you mean that's the reason _I_ went in for him?"

"No, no," explained Laura hurriedly. "I only meant, stand still."

"Well, it was!" And Cora's abrupt laugh had the glad, free ring
fancy attaches to the merry confidences of a buccaneer in trusted
company.

Laura knelt to continue unfastening the dress; and when it was
finished she extended three of the tiny buttons in her hand.
"They're always loose on a new dress," she said. "I'll sew them
all on tight, to-morrow."

Cora smiled lovingly. "You good old thing," she said. "You looked
pretty to-night."

"That's nice!" Laura laughed, as she dropped the buttons into a
little drawer of her bureau. It was an ugly, cheap, old bureau,
its veneer loosened and peeling, the mirror small and flawed--a
piece of furniture in keeping with the room, which was small,
plain and hot, its only ornamental adjunct being a silver-framed
photograph of Mrs. Madison, with Cora, as a child of seven or
eight, upon her lap.