won't; he seems rather a gross type of person."

"Oh, he's just one," Mildred said. "I don't know that he and
Alice Adams were ever engaged--she never told me so. She may not
have been engaged to any of them; she was just enough among the
other girls to get talked about--and one of the reasons I felt a
little inclined to be nice to her was that they seemed to be
rather edging her out of the circle. It wasn't long before I saw
they were right, though. I happened to mention I was going to
give a dance and she pretended to take it as a matter of course
that I meant to invite her brother--at least, I thought she
pretended; she may have really believed it. At any rate, I had
to send him a card; but I didn't intend to be let in for that
sort of thing again, of course. She's what you said, 'pushing';
though I'm awfully sorry you said it."

"Why shouldn't I have said it, my dear?"

"Of course I didn't say 'shouldn't.'" Mildred explained,
gravely. "I meant only that I'm sorry it happened."

"Yes; but why?"

"Mama"--Mildred turned to her, leaning forward and speaking in a
lowered voice--"Mama, at first the change was so little it seemed
as if Arthur hardly knew it himself. He'd been lovely to me
always, and he was still lovely to me but--oh, well, you've
understood--after my dance it was more as if it was just his
nature and his training to be lovely to me, as he would be to
everyone a kind of politeness. He'd never said he CARED for me,