"I understand." Mostyn tried to smile lightly. "You mean that she saw
me kiss you?"

Dolly's flushed silence was her answer. "Ann is so young and romantic
that it has made a great impression on her," Dolly added, lamely, as
she moved toward the door, her eyes downcast. "You see how I am
placed, and I hope you won't blame me. There was no other way out of
it. I think I can keep her from mentioning it. I shall try, anyway.
After all," she sighed, deeply, "it is only _one_ of our troubles--
yours and mine."

"Only _one_ of them," he repeated, with a sudden guilty start--"what
do you mean?"

She swept his face with a flash of her eyes, seemed to hesitate, then
she said, resignedly: "I am quite sure that your Atlanta set,
especially your relatives, would not approve of me--that is, if I were
thrown with them as an equal."

"How absurd!" he began, awkwardly; but she fixed him with a firmness
that checked him.

"Your sister, Mrs. Moore, would scarcely wipe her feet on me. You see,
I met her once."

"When? how?" he asked, wonderingly.

"She was at the house-party Mr. Saunders gave last summer, and he
introduced us on the road one day," Dolly explained, with an indignant
toss of the head. "Oh, I could never--never like her. She treated me