She looked from father to mother. "Now strike me with your wrath," her attitude seemed to say, "I don't care!" At this point it was with difficulty that Alice was restrained from embracing her daughter. Sara kissed all the family with joy, she had a humorous and defiant twinkle in her eye, and yet she kissed them as though she had come back from a long distance, and as though she was as glad as was Alice that she was through with attitudinizing. She kissed her family a second time. Robert was still unresponsive to her affection. He had suffered too much from her that day, and the fact that he did not know the name of his suffering had made it all the worse. He muttered ungraciously at his second embrace:
"If I went around with bare feet I'd be sent up-stairs."
"Yes, Sara, run along to bed," her father said.
She leaped from the room, poked her head back, threw kisses, poked her head back again and threw kisses again and again. There was an intensity in her gestures which made one realize that she had vitality enough to continue bouncing out from behind the door like a jack-in-the-box for half the night.
"Go to bed," her father urged. Then fell silence. One could feel Sara listening on the other side of the door. A swift exchange of intelligence passed between Tom and Alice, his lifted eyebrows meant as plainly as words:
"I'd better pay no attention to her."
Alice nodded. "Of course; don't notice her."
From behind the door rustlings, then a snicker. Still they did not notice her.
"I haven't gone to bed yet," suggested Sara.
"Go right along, Sara," her father said in that cheery
