were affected, then she tapped the face in front of her. "I used to be
young once and dreamed dreams, but I dreamed them in my own house.
I might understand how you could eat with any sort of sinner--I've eaten
with all sorts--but with people who put their knives in their mouths
and don't clean their finger-nails!"

She lay back in her chair, chin up and eyebrows lifted, and Mary Cary,
getting on her feet, laughed, then leaned over and kissed her.

"To-morrow night I am going to the McDougals'. Susie McDougal's
beau, Mr. John Armitage, the soap-box politician, is to be there. You
don't mind, do you?"

Miss Gibbie's mouth, eyes, and nose all screwed together, and the
turkey-wing fan was held at arm's-length. "He uses hair-oil. Yes, I
mind, but I remember I was not to interfere."



Chapter IV

THE COUNCIL CHAMBER

Miss Gibbie would not stay to dinner. "I am fond of you, my dear," she
said, tying the ribbon strings loosely under her chin, "but I might not
be if I had to talk to you after a full meal. And that's the
trouble--you make me talk too much. If you prefer this middle-class
custom of a mid-day dinner, follow it, but don't ask me to join you."

Mary Cary laughed. "I don't think it's middle-class. I think it's nice;