this family," Wally observed meditatively. "There's a whole lot
she's got to learn, and the only way to learn her thorough is--"

"You forget," Grant interrupted him ironically, "that she's going
to make gentlemen of us all."

"Oh, yes--sure. Jack's coming down with it already. You oughta
be quarantined, old-timer; that's liable to be catching." Wally
snorted his disdain of the whole proceeding. "I'd rather go to
jail myself."

Evadna by a circuitous route had reached the sitting-room without
being seen or heard; and it was at this point in the conversation
that she tiptoed out again, her hands doubled into tight little
fists, and her teeth set hard together. She did not look, at
that moment, in the least degree "mushy."

When the triangle clanged its supper call, however, she came
slowly down from her favorite nook at the head of the pond, her
hands filled with flowers hastily gathered in the dusk.

"Here she comes--let's get to our places first, so mamma can't
change Peppajee around," Donny implored, in a whisper; and the
group on the porch disappeared with some haste into the kitchen.

Evadna was leisurely in her movements that night. The tea had
been poured and handed around the table by the Portuguese girl,
Marie, and the sugar-bowl was going after, when she settled
herself and her ruffles daintily between Grant and a braided,
green-blanketed, dignifiedly loquacious Indian.