puzzled. "Why, THAT'S funny! Only the last time I saw you, you
were telling me how awfully well you knew Mildred Palmer."

"Why, certainly I do," Alice informed him. "She's my most
intimate friend."

"That's what makes it seem so funny you haven't heard anything
about this Russell, because everybody says even if she isn't
engaged to him right now, she most likely will be before very
long. I must say it looks a good deal that way to me, myself."

"What nonsense!" Alice exclaimed. "She's never even mentioned
him to me."

The young man glanced at her dubiously and passed a finger over
the tiny prong that dashingly composed the whole substance of his
moustache.

"Well, you see, Mildred IS pretty reserved," he remarked. "This
Russell is some kind of cousin of the Palmer family, I understand."

"He is?"

"Yes--second or third or something, the girls say. You see, my
sister Ella hasn't got much to do at home, and don't read
anything, or sew, or play solitaire, you see; and she hears about
pretty much everything that goes on, you see. Well, Ella says a
lot of the girls have been talking about Mildred and this Arthur
Russell for quite a while back, you see. They were all wondering
what he was going to look like, you see; because he only got here