Mary Stewart Cutting

“ Now she went on impulsively: "Leslie is so artistic! Most people here don't take the trouble to decorate their rooms, they just move out the furniture; but we wanted this to be different. We will have enough men at any rate!"
"Well you're very fortunate," said Miss Coates. "Where I've been staying, at Netherdale, there really weren't any men at all."
"Elsie Rickland told me the other day of a dance she went to where there were twice as many girls as men. But I think too many men are almost worse than too few. ”

“ Winifred nodded, with the expression of pride on her small, glowing face. "That's what everyone says. I don't know what I should have done if I had had a husband like Audrey's." Audrey was her younger sister. "Grattan is awfully nice, of course, but she never can trust to his doing anything; he always forgets. Leslie—everybody says it won't last, but——" Her voice trailed off into silence. ”

“ I know that something lovely is going to happen."
"Well, you are a dear," said Winifred blankly, with, however, the reservation that Katharine was a little mad.
"Mr. Bannard is still on the piazza with Mrs. Silverton," suggested Mrs. Carpenter, her brown eyes roving longingly. "Perhaps he doesn't know how to get away from her."
Mrs. Wilmer shook her head. "No married man stays talking to a woman unless he wants to," she asserted. "As long as they're having a good time they might as well keep out there. Lucia's glad he's entertained; he's usually so restless." ”

“ The Crandalls—you have to ask them, they're so nice, though they are terrible dancers; and the Bannards, they're darlings; and Audrey and Grattan, of course; and the Chandors and the Paxtons and the Wilmers—those men are all so funny together! and Ethel Roberts; I don't care for her, she's so tactful; he's older, but he's fine. Then of the new people there are the Carpenters—he's very interesting and dances well—and the Silvertons—all the men are crazy over her; he sings deliciously. I'm sorry there are so many married people, Katharine. ”

“ It was her secret that she was really giving the party, not for Katharine, but for her husband. It was a terrible amount of trouble, with a little child hi the house, and an incompetent maid, even with the proffered aid of her mother and sister, and she really didn't care much about dancing anyway; but he was so thoroughly and hospitably interested when she suggested it that she felt quite tender over his enjoyment; he had a social talent denied to her earnestness.
Winifred Iverson had been submerged, by marriage, in her domestic and civic duties ”

“ Silverton!"
A slight titter went around as it was seen that she also was alone. "How perfectly dear you look!" she announced in a rich, magnetic voice, holding both of Winifred's hands; "and how nice just to have a hen party! I've been hearing about it upstairs. Arthur had a 'phone from Will Laurence before I left home, saying that he and Mr. Iverson and a lot more were going into town with the boys after the show, and have a supper there before putting them on the midnight train. There are about thirty of them. What good times men do have, don't they?" ”

“ She had the air of a royal princess, with, however, a shade of pensiveness in her eyes, as if she wasn't getting all she should. "I never saw a man who was willing to take so much trouble—and he does everything so well!" ”

“ Wilmer explained, having done "something or other"; but she was simply spoiling for a dance. Mr. Roberts had had the unexpected excitement of a visit from an old friend from Honolulu, to leave on the morrow—Mr. Roberts's wife had been sure that Winifred would accept his excuses; they had so much to talk about. Audrey effusively proclaimed that Grattan had insisted in staying himself with the ailing Bruiser so that she could have a change, and "Wasn't it too perfectly sweet of him? But where is Leslie?" ”

“ Courtney, yet, as she noticed, with something strangely forced in his manner.
"All our men seem to have been killed off! It's really absurd; but I'm hoping for Leslie soon. I want to take you at once to meet Miss Coates, the lovely girl over there in green; I think you know everybody else. Katharine, this is Mr. Courtney."
It was almost a shock, on turning away, to find Donald Bannard entering with his wife. His tall and lightsome presence seemed something to cling to as Winifred moaned out her troubles to them both hastily. "Everybody in the place will be making fun of this to-morrow. ”

“ Frobisher gave that ball last winter she had so many extra fellows that they all simply went off to the library and smoked and talked about boats and things—with the pretty girls sitting out in the ballroom! Clementine Wilmer says men always seem so crazy for each other's society. ”

“ We are going to have plenty of men, anyway. I'll see you Thursday, then.—Good-bye."
"Well, that's settled!" Young Mrs. Iverson turned from the telephone to her husband, a tall, fair, pleasant-faced young man who sat in an arm-chair, looking over the pages of a magazine as he smoked his pipe. She dropped down in a seat beside him, her dark eyes alight. "It's really wonderful—not one refusal! Put down your book, dear; as long as Katharine has gone up to write a letter we might as well consult about the last things now. I hate to ask you to bring out anything more ”

“ Winifred's face flushed in spite of her. "He's dreadfully sorry. It's the night of the Amherst show at the Ridge for the Playground, and he feels responsible for the boys. It was an old engagement, but he had mistaken the date." ”