"You don't happen to know the Gately's, of New York, do you?" he was
quite anxious to know.
"I am truly sorry, but I am acquainted with so few people in New York.
We are from Chicago, you know."
"Oh," said he blankly, and took the water up to the Ellsworth suite.
Mrs. Ellsworth cheered up considerably when she heard that Ralph had
been met halfway, but her eyes snapped when he confessed that it was
Miss Van Kamp who had met him.
"I hope you are not going to carry on a flirtation with that
overdressed creature," she blazed.
"Why mother," exclaimed Ralph, shocked beyond measure. "What right
have you to accuse either this young lady or myself of flirting?
Flirting!"
Mrs. Ellsworth suddenly attacked the fire with quite unnecessary
energy.
X
Down at the barn, the wide threshing floor had been covered with gay
rag-rugs, and strewn with tables, couches, and chairs in picturesque
profusion. Roomy box-stalls had been carpeted deep with clean straw,
curtained off with gaudy bed-quilts, and converted into cozy sleeping
apartments. The mow and the stalls had been screened off with lace
curtains and blazing counterpanes, and the whole effect was one of
Oriental luxury and splendor.
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