HILDA [_without attending_]. It is probably the girl. [_She proceeds to the front; he follows. As they turn the corner_, MINNIE _and_ HERBERT _turn the corner, opposite, and the couples confront each other_.] MINNIE. Hilda! HILDA. Minnie! MINNIE. Hilda, where in the world have you been? HILDA. And I should like to know where in the world you have been? MINNIE [_severely and indicating the porch behind her_]. We've been sitting on that porch all night, waiting for you. HILDA [_mocking her severity and indicating the porch behind her_]. And we've been sitting on that porch all night, waiting for you! JAMIE [_to_ HILDA _coldly_]. Now that you have other company, I'll go. Good-bye! [_He rushes down the steps._] HILDA [_running to the rail and calling after him softly_]. Jamie! Jamie! Oh, Jamie! [_He apparently does not hear her._ HERBERT _stands by fumbling his hat and looking first at one girl then at the other, wonderingly_. HILDA _turns from the rail and gazes at_ MINNIE _who returns the gaze searchingly_. HILDA _bites her lower lip and looks down_. MINNIE _leans against the casing of the front door, her hand on the knob. She anticipates a scene._] MINNIE. Good-night--Herbert! HERBERT. Good-night--Minnie! [_They exchange one loving look and he is off. He proceeds in a direction opposite to that taken by_ JAMIE.] MINNIE [_regarding_ HILDA _whose eyes are upon her and filled with surprise_]. Hilda--tell me--what---- HILDA [_hiding her face against the shoulder of her room-mate, who strokes her hair caressingly_]. Oh, Minnie--Minnie--he's gone--it's broken---- MINNIE [_convulsively, her grasp upon the doorknob, tightening. The knob turns. The door swings back_]. Oh! See! HILDA [_lifting her face_]. Oh! [_Her eyes meet_ MINNIE'S. _In the latter there is a smile which she shares weakly_.] MINNIE. This is too absurd! Open all night! HILDA [_trying hard not to cry_]. Oh, Minnie! I don't know what---- MINNIE [_her arm around_ HILDA]. There dear. Don't cry. It will come out all right. And to think you should have broken with Jamie while Herbert and I were---- [_They pass into the hallway._ MINNIE, _by closing the door softly behind them, renders the rest unintelligible to any one who might be passing just at this instant_.] A MODERN MERCURY I On a cool morning in mid-June two little boys, very dusty and wearing very grimy waists, sat on the turfed mound of an ancient circus ring in the old fair ground enclosure, intently watching the gaunt, half-naked figure of a man in flapping white breeches who, high-stepping, sprinted back and forth along the stretch of the old race track. Their elbows on their knees, their chins in their grimy hands, they gazed fixedly at him whom they had trudged across the lots to see. For in his day he was the small boys' god, their best-loved hero, before whom it was their greatest joy to bend the knee.