after dinner and WORM yourself into this party, I'll show you."

She flounsed out, and shortly afterwards mother took a minute from the
Florest, and came upstairs.

"I do hope you are not going to be troublesome, Barbara," she said. "You
are too young to understand, but I want everything to go well tonight,
and Leila ought not to be worried."

"Can't I dance a little?"

"You can sit on the stairs and watch." She looked fidgity. "I--I'll
send up a nice dinner, and you can put on your dark blue, with a fresh
collar, and--it ought to satisfy you, Barbara, that you are at home and
posibly have brought the meazles with you, without making a lot of fuss.
When you come out----"

"Oh, very well," I murmured, in a resined tone. "I don't care enough
about it to want to dance with a lot of Souses anyhow."

"Barbara!" said mother.

"I suppose you have some one on the String for her," I said, with the
ABANDON of my thwarted Hopes. "Well, I hope she gets him. Because if not
I darsay I shall be kept in the Cradle for years to come."

"You will come out when you reach a proper Age," she said, "if your
Impertanence does not kill me off before my Time."

Dear Dairy, I am fond of my mother, and I felt repentent and stricken.