And it's not so long that we've been objects of charity that we quite really enjoy it--yet." There was a moment's hush.

Billy's eyes had filled with tears.
"I never even _thought_--charity," said Billy, so gently that a faint red stole into the white cheeks opposite.
For a tense minute Alice Greggory held herself erect; then, with a complete change of manner and voice, she released her mother's hand, dropped into her own chair again, and said wearily: "I know you didn't, Miss Neilson.

It's all my foolish pride, of course.
It's only that I was thinking how dearly I would love to meet girls again--just as _girls!_ But--I no longer have any business with pride, of course.

I shall be pleased, I'm sure," she went on dully, "to accept anything you may do for us, from automobile rides to--to red flannel petticoats." Billy almost--but not quite--laughed.

Still, the laugh would have been near to a sob, had it been given.