Page:Elizabeth Jordan--Tales of the city room.djvu/177

 "If you girls are going to discuss that subject," laughed Miss Herrick, apologetically, "you will need all the light there is. Ruminating in the dark, to Polish music, is apt to make one's point of view a little morbid."

She dropped into a "cosey hollow" near the fire and clasped her hands behind her head in her favorite attitude of rest and reflection. "Now that we have the honor of your attention you shall decide the question for us," said Miss Imboden, with conviction. "It must be taken up and disposed of. It's something we have to settle, and we cannot shirk the issue any longer."

Ruth Herrick smiled down at the earnest face upturned to her.

"You make it highly impressive, Virginia," she said gently,—"almost too impressive, I think; for, after all, the issue, as you call it, is a very simple one. It has to do with a bright and charming young woman who has come among us, of whom we know little, but of whom we have grown very fond. Is n't that all?"

"How trying you are!" murmured her