_F._ We'll talk about it when you come to-morrow. (_Opening the door._) I must go this very moment, or I shall _never_ get to Mrs. Fresco's. _A._ What are you going to wear to-night? _F._ That cardinal I showed you the other day. _A._ Isn't that rather gorgeous? _F._ Oh, it's going to be a big dinner, you know; and there's lots of black lace on it. _A._ It must be awfully becoming. _F._ It is. If Jack knows anything, he ought to see a difference between that and orange plumes. _A._ Ethel Mott told me-- Oh, do come in a moment. I'm simply freezing to death, and I must tell you this. _F._ (_once more coming in and closing the door_) Well, do be quick. I ought to have been home long ago. _A._ Oh, you've lots of time. _F._ But it takes so long to do my hair. _A._ How are you going to wear it? _F._ The same old way. I wish somebody'd invent some new style,--something real nice and becoming. I asked Uncle Calvin the other night if he hadn't seen some pretty styles in China, and I wish you could have _seen_ the pictures he brought out! _A._ What were they like? _F._ Like? They weren't like anything. Why, I just _gasped_ over them! Ships, and butterflies, and all sorts of things; all made out of hair, right on your own head. _A._ Not really? _F._ Yes, just as I tell you. I never _saw_ anything so frightful. _A._ It must have been perfectly ghastly! _F._ Well, good-bye. Come early. Oh! what were you going to tell me? _A._ To tell you? _F._ Yes,--that Ethel Mott said. _A._ Oh, she said that Kate West has been corresponding all winter with that West Point cadet she met at Newport last summer. _F._ No! _A._ Yes! _F._ Why, Alice Langley, do you mean it? _A._ Ethel said she knew it. _F._ I don't believe it. _A._ That's what I said. _F._ But she's as good as engaged to George Maynard. _A._ I know it. _F._ I think it's perfectly awful. _A._ So do I. _F._ Do you suppose he knows it? _A._ Oh, no. He's so gone on Kate, he thinks she'd never look at anybody but him. _F._ I never heard anything so perfectly amazing in my life. _A._ And sometimes, Ethel says, they write each other two letters a week. _F._ Two letters? _A._ Two letters. _F._ In one week? _A._ That's what Ethel says. _F._ I wonder she doesn't expect the ground to open and swallow her. I never heard of such deceit. Why, she's going to lead the german with George at the Wentworths' next week. _A._ I know it. _F._ Well, I've always said Kate West couldn't be trusted out of your sight. (_She turns, and opens the door._) I do believe that every time I open that door it is colder. I know I shall die before I get home,--or freeze my ears. _A._ Think how dreadful it would be to freeze your ears. I knew a girl at boarding-school that froze her ears skating one vacation, and they hung down like rags. We used to tell her they were like a spaniel's, and call her Fido. She'd get _perfectly_ furious. _F._ I don't wonder.