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Rh "I have seen you before!" she exclaimed, on the impulse of the moment.

"That sounds like a novel! what is coming now?" ejaculated Jo, with his mouth full of pie.

Mr. Stanwood laughed very heartily at Nattie's exclamation, and asked in reply,

"Have you just discovered it? I recognized you the moment I entered the room to-day. That is one reason I was so anxious to remain. She snubbed me most outrageously," he added to Cyn, in explanation, "and simply because I tried to be agreeable to her one day at the office."

"But you had no business to be agreeable!" said Nattie, also laughing, and not at all displeased.

"Of course you had not," interrupted Jo.

"I never talk to strangers," concluded Nattie.

"Except, perhaps, on the wire, as you said just now!" he suggested.

"You have caught her now!" said Cyn gayly, as she peeled an orange. "But you will never do even that again, will you, Nat?"

"One such experience is quite enough for me," Nattie replied.

"Still, the next one might not have red hair, or smell of musk!" Jo remarked.

"He might be even worse, though!" interposed the penitent on the stool.