to find me, didn't you? Oh, you can't throw dust
in the Midget's eyes, you young rascal!" and she
stretched up her two dainty hands; drew his face
toward her, and kissed him on the lips.

"There--" and she patted his cheek-- "now tell
me all about it, you dear Ollie. What did you
want to see me for?" she added with one of those
quick divinations that made her so helpful a confidante.
Then, in a lowered voice-- "What has Sue
done?"

"Nothing--not one thing. She isn't bothering
her head about me. I only stopped there to leave a
book, and--"

Mrs. Horn, with laughing, inquiring eyes, looked
up from her chair at Miss Clendenning, and made a
little doubting sound with her lips. Black-eyed Sue
Clayton, with her curls down her back, home from
boarding-school for the Easter holidays, was Oliver's
latest flame. His mother loved to tease him about
his love-affairs; and always liked him to have a new
one. She could see farther into his heart she thought
when the face of some sweet girl lay mirrored in its
depths.

Oliver heard the doubting sound his mother made,
and, reaching over her chair, flung his arms about
her neck and kissed her as if she had been a girl.