“I’ll not worry, once I’m started. Don’t you fret! But what’s the matter with you, Ora? You look kinder excited, and kinder--well, harassed. How’s that out of the new pocket dictionary I’ve set up in my head?” “I’ll soon have to look to my own vocabulary. Oh--I----” “Something’s up. Spit it out. It’ll do you good.” “Dear Ida! If you must use slang, do confine yourself to that which has passed through the mint of polite society. There is an abundance to choose from!” “Don’t you worry; I won’t disgrace you. But I must let out a tuck occasionally when we’re alone. Greg wouldn’t let me go to any of the Club dances, and I scarcely ever see Ruby or Pearl, they’re so busy--to say nothing of myself!” “Very well,” said Ora, laughing. “Let me be your safety valve, by all means.” “Fire away.” “Oh--how am I to tell you--I scarcely know, myself----” “I guess you’re waking up. Ruby, who knows human nature like a book----” Ora half rose. “Have you been talking me over with Miss Miller?” she asked haughtily. “Not much. Hardly seen her since we met. But you interest Butte, you know. I guess they talk you over good and plenty. It was only a few days before you called that the Miller girls visited with me all day, and they talked a lot about you. Ruby said that if you’d come to out of the sleeping beauty stage, you’d make things hum, and that her fingers just itched to get at your skin and hair.” “She said that to me once; and I don’t mind telling you that I called her in some time ago.” “Oh, I’m not a bat. I’ve seen you looking prettier every day, and there’s only one way to do it, when you’ve let yourself go. I’ve had the benefit of Ruby’s advice for years, and I don’t propose to let myself go, not for a minute.” “Right you are. And do live your life normally from day to day, developing normally. The awakening process, when the Nature that made you is no longer content to be a mere footstool for the mind, is almost as painful as coming to after drowning. I suddenly have become conscious of myself, as it were; I am interested in many more things--personal things--I seem to want far more of life than I did a few months ago----” “In other words, you don’t know where you’re at.” Ora laughed merrily. “My present condition could not be stated more patly!”