FROM THE LIFE
He was unable to find words to describe how his sisters looked. They looked as if their limp garments had been poured cold over their shoulders and hung dripping down to their bone-thin ankles.
"I'm glad you like her," Millie said. "She's a sight."
He had determined to be politic. It was essential that he should be politic. Yet he, the future leader of a conservative party, retorted: "It 'd do you good to know a few girls like her. The silly crowd you go with!"
"Lizzie Janes! That frump!"
He appealed to his mother. "I certainly think you ought to call on them, mother. They've been mighty good to me this summer while you were away."
"Well, Wat," she said, "if you wish it—"
"You'll do no such thing!" Millie cried.
The squabble that followed did not end in victory for Wat. It was Millie's contention that they were not bound to receive every "freak" that he might "pick up"; and Mrs. Tyler—who, in social matters, was usually glad to remain in the quiet background of the family—put herself forward inadequately in Wat's behalf. She succumbed to her husband's decision that she "had better leave it to the girls"; he ended the dispute indifferently by leaving the table; and Wat realized, with desperation, that he had failed in his diplomatic attempt to engage the
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