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Show fleeting on the unhappiness of that past occasion. "You all know how stupid the play was," she went on, finally, with considerable heat, "and I remarked to Mrs. Morse that it wag too bad we bad wasted our tinje and our money on it. She gave me the Btrungest look, but I was dense as a porpoise." "Porpoise?" murmured the fiuffy-haired fiuffy-haired blonde, inquiringly. "Is a porpoise por-poise dense?" "I'm sure I don't know," returned young Mrs. Allison, blandly. "I'm not connected with the zoo myself, but it sounds all right, doesn't it?" "Oh, very well," said the fluffy-haired fluffy-haired blonde with resignation. "Let it pass." "And," young Mrs. Allison continued, contin-ued, taking up the thread of her nar-, nar-, rative. "between the second and third acts I remarked that it was a pity we hadn't bought our seats earlier, so that we might have obtained better bet-ter ones." The fluffy-haired blonde burst out laughing. "What an appreciative guest you were. Celeste!" she cried. "That's just It," admitted young Mrs. Allison gloomily. "When 1 tried to pay her for my ticket I discovered that she had invited me to go invited in-vited me, you understand. And when I tried to explain my mistake it was like sharing confidences with a etone wall." "No wonder -you hate her," said the fluffy-haired blonde. "Of course not," agreed young Mrs. Allison. "It is dangerous for anybody to try to be polite to me." The Rigki of Free Speech "In hot water again, Celeste?" inquired in-quired the fluffy-haired blonde, with a solemn parade of sympathy. Young Mrs. Allison nodded. She opened her mouth to explain, but closed it again with decision. The sewing circle waited politely while she took seven stitches on a drawn work bureau scarf. But finding that she maintained a resolute silence, the fluffy-haired blonde besought an explanation. ex-planation. "What's the trouble now, dear?" she asked. Young Mrs. Allison laid down the bureau scarf and sighed. "Oh, it's my fluent conversation, as usual, she said. The gushing young woman in heliotrope helio-trope breathed a sympathetic "Ah!" but the fluffy-haired blonde giggled and young Mrs. Allison glared at her resentfully. "Do you know Mrs. Morrison Morse?" demanded Mrs. Allison, with a dark frown. "Why, yes, I do," said the fluffy-haired fluffy-haired blonde, with Interest. "I met her the other day at the bridge c)ub. She dropped in just in time for refreshments re-freshments and " ' "I'm sure she did," Interrupted young Mrs. Allison, fretfully. "She's always dropping in somewhere. She drops in to tea at dinner time and when she accepts a luncheon invitation invita-tion she usually arrives after you have given her up and the soup is being served. She simply loves to be casual!" The gushing young woman In heliotrope helio-trope emitted another soulful monosyllable. mono-syllable. "Well," commented the fluffy-haired blonde, doubtfully, "I don't know ber very well, myself, but she wears ravishing rav-ishing clothes. What have you got against her, Celeste?" "I?" exclaimed young Mrs. Allison, with surprise. "Oh, nothing, except her habits but she has something against me." "Urn," said the fluffy-haired blonde. comprenenaingiy. nave you Deen telling her what a v'y Is that her husband is so ugly, or did you warn her against wearing lavender next her face?" "Neither," responded young Mrs. Allison, cheerfully. '"lor, I will add, am I such a painfully tactless person as you all think. I have been known to mak- quite charming personal remarks re-marks to people on the spur of the moment, and very often," she added sadly, "I think of the loveliest and most plausible lies imaginable after- t ward." "I don't believe it," said the fluffy-haired fluffy-haired blonde, with a sigh on her own account. "There are many virtues, my love, that your warmest friends cannot claim for you, but your most radical enemy couldn't accuse ycu of untruthfulness. Now, what is this trouble with Mrs. Morrison Morse, anyway?" "She called me up on the telephone the other day," explained young Mrs. Allison, meekly, "and asked me if I had anything on hand for Saturday afternoon. I said I hadn't 'I've been feeling like going to the matinee,' she told me.' 'Let's go tomorrow, then.' That suited me perfectly, so we decided de-cided on what to see and where to meet and all that Of course I understood un-derstood that it was to be a Dutch treat, as we all do that way, you know." - The different members of the sewing sew-ing circle nodded affirmatively. "Well," continued young Mrs. Allison, Alli-son, ber voice becoming aggrieved, "Saturday afternoon came, as the novelists nov-elists say, and I had met Mrs. Morrison Mor-rison Morse, who was so late that I was cross. Then we went to the matinee!" Young Mrs. Allison paused, as if re- |