Page:Middle Aged Love Stories (IA middleagedlove00bacorich).djvu/99

 you suggest the rearrangement of the Rooms under Mr. Waters’s direction? Thompson is at his service—”

“Oh, Mr. Welles!” she sighed hopelessly. “It isn’t only that! It’s not alone the room, though Mrs. Underwood wonders that I should think she would be able to conduct the Band of Hope in here, and Mrs. Rider says that after what her husband told her she should no more think of sitting here for a mothers’ meeting than anything in the world. It’s the whole thing. Why did you treat them all to lemonade the first day? Surely you knew that our one aim is to prevent miscellaneous charity. And Tom says you smoked in here—he smelt it.”

“I smelt him, too,” remarked the director calmly. “That was one reason why I smoked.”

“And—and having Kitty and Annabel here all the time! The Girls’ Club are so j— Well, the Girls’ Club like