mistress.

"Really, Hal," Miss Walton remonstrated, "can't you even keep tidy for
an hour in the evening?"

"Not when it's German night," answered outspoken Hal; "where to put the
verbs, and how to split them, makes my hair stand on end, and the ink
squirm out of the pot."

Miss Walton tried to look severe, remarking: "Don't be frivolous here,
my dear"; but, as Hal described it later, "she looked as if having so
often to be sedate was beginning to make her tired."

But when she proceeded to explain to Hal that neither she nor her
sister were easy in their minds about her growing devotion to Lorraine,
Hal's expressive mouth began to look rather stern, and neither the
ink-smudges nor the tousled hair could rob her of a certain naïve dignity
as she asked, "Are you implying anything against Lorraine?"

"No, no, my dear, certainly not," Miss Walton replied, feeling slightly
at a loss to express herself, "but I have never encouraged a violent
friendship between two girls that is apt to make them hold aloof from
the others, and be continually in one another's society. And in this
instance, Lorraine being so much older than you, and of a temperament
hardly likely to appeal to your brother, as a desirable one in your
great friend -"

"I am not asking Dudley to make her his great friend -"

"Don't interrupt me, dear. I am only speaking of what I am perfectly