"Do!" said Rose. "What fun it would be! Call it 'The Society for
the Suppression of Young Men.' I'll join."

"You, indeed!" replied Katy, shaking her head. "Didn't I see Berry
Searles throw a bunch of syringa into your window only this morning?"

"Dear me! did he? I shall have to speak to Mary again. It's quite
shocking to have her go on so. But really and truly do let us have
a Society. It would be so jolly. We could meet on Saturday
afternoons, and write pieces and have signals and a secret, as
Sylvia's Society did when she was at school. Get one up, Katy,--
that's a dear."

"But," said Katy, taken aback by having her random idea so suddenly
adopted, "if I did get one up, it would be in real earnest, and it
would be a society against flirting. And you know you can't help
it, Rosy."

"Yes, I can. You are doing me great injustice. I don't behave like
those girls in Attic Row. I never did. I just bow to Berry and the
rest whom I really know,--never to anybody else. And you must see,
Katherine darling, that it would be the height of ingratitude if I
didn't bow to the boys who made mud pies for me when I was little,
and lent me their marbles, and did all sorts of kind things. Now
wouldn't it?"--coaxingly.

"Per--haps," admitted Katy, with a smile. "But you're such a witch!"

"I'm not,--indeed I'm not. I'll be a pillar of society if only you'll
provide a Society for me to be a pillar of. Now, Katy, do--ah, do, do!"