with her; she never goes to dances or seems to have any fun."

"I wonder if we couldn't go see the mother, and hint that there is
beginning to be a little talk about Katherine," mused Mrs. Burgoyne.
"Don't you think so, Mrs. Adams?"

"Oh, my goodness!" Mrs. Adams said nervously, "I don't KNOW anything
about it! I wouldn't for the world--I never dreamed--one would hate
to start trouble--Mr. Adams is very fond of the Thornes--"

"But we ought to save her if we can, we married women who know how
mischievous that sort of thing is," Mrs. Burgoyne urged.

"Why, probably they've not met but once or twice!" Mrs. White said,
annoyed, but with a comfortable air of closing the subject, and no
more was said at the time. But both she and Mrs. Adams were a little
uneasy two or three days later, when, returning from a motor trip,
they saw Mrs. Burgoyne standing at the Thornes' gate, in laughing
conversation with pretty little Katherine and her angular, tall
mother.

"And there is nothing in that story at all," said Mrs. Burgoyne
later, to Mrs. Carew.

"I suppose you walked up and said, 'If you are Miss Thorne, you are
clandestinely meeting Joe Turner down by the old mill every week!'"
laughed Mrs. Carew,

"I managed it very nicely," Mrs. Burgoyne said, "I admired their
yellow rose one day, as I passed the gate. Mrs. Thorne was standing