"No, I won't; and I only want to say that, as you owe the
explanation to us both, perhaps it would be best for you to tell
August your part of the thing as you come home to-morrow, and then
leave the rest to fate. I can't let him go away thinking me such a
heartless creature, and once gone it will be too late to mend the
matter. Can you do this without getting me into another scrape, do
you think?"

"I haven't a doubt of it, and I call that sensible. I'll fix it
capitally,--go down on my knees in the mud, if it is necessary;
treat you like eggs for fear of another smash-up; and bring him home
in such a tip-top state, you'll only have to nod and find yourself
Mrs. B. any day you like. Now let's kiss and be friends, and then go
pitch into that pie for luncheon."

So they did, and an hour afterward were rioting in the garret under
pretence of putting grandma's things away; for at eighteen, in spite
of love and mischief, boys and girls have a spell to exorcise blue
devils, and a happy faculty of forgetting that "the world is hollow,
and their dolls stuffed with saw-dust."

Dick was right, for on the following evening, after the lesson, Mr.
Bopp did go home with him, "to say good-by, like a gentleman as he
was." Dolly got over the first greeting in the dusky hall, and as
her guest passed on to the parlor, she popped her head out to ask
anxiously,--

"Did you say anything, Dick?"

"I couldn't; something has happened to him; he'll tell you about it.