"Miss Charlotte is laughing at us. I suppose she thinks we are
awfully silly to be talking about beaux."

The truth was that I was simply smiling over some very pretty
thoughts that had come to me about the roses which were climbing
over Mary Gillespie's sill. I meant to inscribe them in the
little blank book when I went home. Georgie's speech brought me
back to harsh realities with a jolt. It hurt me, as such
speeches always did.

"Didn't you ever have a beau, Miss Holmes?" said Wilhelmina
laughingly.

Just as it happened, a silence had fallen over the room for a
moment, and everybody in it heard Wilhelmina's question.

I really do not know what got into me and possessed me. I have
never been able to account for what I said and did, because I am
naturally a truthful person and hate all deceit. It seemed to me
that I simply could not say "No" to Wilhelmina before that whole
roomful of women. It was TOO humiliating. I suppose all the
prickles and stings and slurs I had endured for fifteen years on
account of never having had a lover had what the new doctor calls
"a cumulative effect" and came to a head then and there.

"Yes, I had one once, my dear," I said calmly.

For once in my life I made a sensation. Every woman in that room
stopped sewing and stared at me. Most of them, I saw, didn't