the giggled delight of Miss Fluff, soon brought him submissively to the seat, where he sat twiddling his straw hat between his fingers, and glancing uncertainly at Alfred, who was thoughtful enough to sit next him.     

       “Goodness, one could almost dance out here, couldn't one?” said the small person, named Zoie, as her eyes roved over the bit of level green before them.     

       “Would you like to try?” asked Alfred, apparently agreeable to her every caprice.     

       “I'd love it!” cried Zoie. “Come along.” She sprang up and held out her hands to him.     

       “I'm going to be unselfish,” answered Alfred, “and let Jimmy have that fun.”      

       By this time, Jimmy had been seized with an intuitive feeling that his friend was in immediate danger.     

       “Was this the young woman who was to sit opposite the fireside five nights a week and systematise Alfred's life?”      

       Jimmy stared at the intruder blankly. For answer, two small hands were thrust out toward him and an impatient little voice was commanding him to       “Come, dance.” He heard Alfred's laughter. He had no intention of accommodating the small person in this or any other matter, yet, before he realised quite how it had happened, he was two-stepping up and down the grass to her piping little voice; nor did she release him until the perspiration came rolling from his forehead; and, horror of horrors, his one-time friend, Alfred, seemed to find this amusing, and laughed louder and louder when Jimmy sank by his side exhausted.     

       When Jimmy was again able to think consecutively, he concluded that considerable conversation must have taken place between Alfred and the small one, while he was recovering his breath and re-adjusting his wilted neckwear. He was now thrown into a fresh panic by an exclamation from the excitable Zoie.     

       “You must both meet my friend, Aggie Darling,” she was saying. “I am bringing her with me to the hop to-night. She is not at all like me. You will like her dreadfully.” She smiled at Jimmy as though she were conferring a great favour upon him.     

       “Like her dreadfully,” commented Jimmy to 

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