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days later, nonchalantly to Laurel, Stella remarked one morning, "I shan't be here, most likely, when you get back this afternoon, Laurel." Laurel was attending business college daily now. "I've got an invitation for luncheon and the matinee."

"An invitation? From whom, mother?"

Stella smiled. "I haven't got so many admirers. I guess you can guess."

The color flooded to Laurel's cheeks. "Mother, not Mr. Munn! You haven't accepted an invitation from Mr. Munn!"

"I'd like to know why I haven't!"

"Knowing how I feel about him—how I dislike him."

"Gracious, Lollie! Honestly, it's funny! You act as if you were the mother, and I the child."

"Mother, you haven't been seeing that creature again, have you?"

"That creature! How you talk! Why, Laurel, Ed's a real nice man."

"I don't want to discuss him, mother. I don't want to hear you stand up for him. I don't see why you're bringing him up again. I thought we'd decided we'd drop him long ago."

"You mean you decided it. I never did. Mercy, I've got to have a little independence. With you away so much every day, Laurel, and nothing for me to do, I'd be a very foolish woman indeed, to allow a notion of yours to cheat me out of a little harmless entertainment."