but do you have to have a chaperone, or don't girls just go to dances with the men sometimes? If they do, would you—would you let me take you?"
Alice was startled. "Good gracious!"
"What's the matter?"
"Don't you think your relatives——— Aren't you expected to go with Mildred—and Mrs. Palmer?"
"Not necessarily. It doesn't matter what I might be expected to do," he said. "Will you go with me?"
"I———No; I couldn't."
"Why not?"
"I can't. I'm not going."
"But why?"
"Papa's not really any better," Alice said, huskily. "I'm too worried about him to go to a dance." Her voice sounded emotional, genuinely enough; there was something almost like a sob in it. "Let's talk of other things, please."
He acquiesced gently; but Mrs. Adams, who had been listening to the conversation at the open window, just overhead, did not hear him. She had correctly interpreted the sob in Alice's voice, and, trembling with sudden anger, she rose from her knees, and went fiercely to her husband's room.
