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 with Bill. Gone from Gregg was the stuffy feeling, which had taken him an hour ago, that possibly Marjorie Hale wanted him more than she did Billy. Gregg now honestly had no idea how much she wanted him or whether, to Marjorie, he was really no more important than a lip stick, summoned to stir a rouse out of Bill. Billy was appeased and left them together.

"Of course, I wanted you awfully to come, Mr. Mowbry. You see, to-night is a sort of marker for mother in Evanston," Marjorie explained. "Ten years ago this winter father moved us from our Irving Park house of seven rooms on a fifty-foot lot; we had one general housework girl, most of the time; father used to take care of the furnace and carry out the ashes and cut the lawn. This morning, about eleven, mother casually called up Mrs. Severne Thomas Sedgwick and mentioned that she thought she'd have a little informal dinner for the young people and would Clara and Elsie come? Mrs. Sedgwick immediately said, "Certainly." Ten minutes later she got Ethel and George Chaden and Fred Vane. I don't think Fred had to ask his mother to let him come; but if he did, it's safe to say that she told him to come along. Now, the point is this isn't a big, formal affair, where anybody'd look in only from curiosity and without committing themselves to friendship with us. It's just that. Mother's been rather high up about it all day."

"Where've you been?" Gregg asked.

"Oh, miles above all altitude records! Shouldn't I be—when neighbors come in like that, though their fathers inherited most of their stocks and bonds and my father's just earning his for himself? Oh, it seems to me silly for them to have to approve of him; he's worth three of any other men about here; and the