speaking again.

"She's going auto-riding--Mellicent is--with a young man, Carl
Pennock--one of the nicest in town. There are four others in the
party. They're going down to the Lake for cake and ice cream, and
they're all nice young people, else I shouldn't let her go, of course.
She's eighteen, for all she's so small. She favors my mother in looks,
but she's got the Blaisdell nose, though. Oh, and 'twas the Blaisdells
you said you were writing a book about, wasn't it? You don't mean OUR
Blaisdells, right here in Hillerton?"

"I mean all Blaisdells, wherever I find them," smiled Mr. Smith.

"Dear me! What, US? You mean WE'll be in the book?" Now that the
matter of board had been satisfactorily settled, Mrs. Blaisdell
apparently dared to show some interest in the book.

"Certainly."

"You don't say! My, how pleased Hattie'll be--my sister-in-law, Jim's
wife. She just loves to see her name in print--parties, and club
banquets, and where she pours, you know. But maybe you don't take
women, too."

"Oh, yes, if they are Blaisdells, or have married Blaisdells."

"Oh! That's where we'd come in, then, isn't it? Mellicent and I? And
Frank, my husband, he'll like it, too,--if you tell about the grocery
store. And of course you would, if you told about him. You'd have to--
'cause that's all there is to tell. He thinks that's about all there