to ask me to dance. Then I'll be much more likely to take what I can get. I
want to marry with all the bloom on and all my illusions fresh."

"But should you like to have them rubbed off by your husband? You've heard
the old adage: 'marry in haste and repent--'"

"I've been brought up on adages. They are called bromides now. As for
illusions, everybody says they don't last anyway. I'd rather have them
dispelled after a long wonderful honeymoon by a husband than by a lot of
flirtations in a conservatory and in dark corners--"

"Good heavens! Do you suppose that I flirted in a conservatory and in dark
corners?"

"I'll bet you didn't, but lots do. And in the haute noblesse, the ancient
aristocracy! I've seen 'em."

"It isn't possible that you--"

"Oh, no, I love to dance too much. But I'm not easily shocked. I 'll tell
you that right here. And I 'll tell you what I confessed to mother this
morning."



V


When she had finished Mrs. Abbott sat for a few moments petrified; but
she was thirty-eight, not sixty-five, and there was neither dismay nor