"No; I want a man's view of it, too. But perhaps you were busy and I'll be in the way." For her reply, Theodora drew another chair into the group. Cicely sat down, balanced Melchisedek on her knee and fell to poking his grey hair this way and that, as if at a loss how to begin the conversation. "How far is it safe for a girl to follow up a boy?" she asked abruptly, yet with a little catch in her breath. "Meaning yourself?" Billy queried. "Yes, of course." "I should say it depended a good deal on the boy." "I mean Allyn." "What's the matter? Have you had a falling out?" "Yes, we are always doing it. I can't seem to help it, either. It's horrid. He is outspoken and tells me what he thinks of me; I'm peppery, and I don't like it." "I know, dear," Theodora said gently, for she read the girl's irritation in her voice. "Allyn isn't always as polite as he might be; but we must try not to be too sensitive." "I'm not sensitive," Cicely said forlornly. "I like him, though, and I want him to like me, and it hurts my feelings when he doesn't." "How long has the present feud lasted?" Billy inquired. "Almost ten days. It's the worst one yet, and it started from nothing. I know he is your brother, Cousin Theodora; but--I really don't think it's all my fault." "No." Theodora's voice suggested no mental reservation. "I know how it is, Cicely. Allyn has been my baby and my boy; but, much as I love him, I can't help seeing that he is cantankerous and cross-grained at times. But it is only at times, Cis; it isn't chronic." "I wish it were. Then I shouldn't mind it so much. But when he isn't cross, he is one of the jolliest boys I have ever known. That's the worst of it, for I miss him so, when we squabble. When we are on terms, I don't care about anybody else; and so, when we are off, it leaves me all alone." "When I squabbled with your Cousin Theodora," Billy said oracularly; "I generally felt I had done my share, and I left her to do the making up." "So I observed," his wife answered; but Cicely was too much absorbed in her subject to heed the parenthesis. "I'm willing to make up," she said, as she twisted Melchisedek's ears with an absent-minded fervor which caused the sufferer to whimper; "but how can I? He just goes off his way, and leaves me to go mine. I hate to tag him; besides, I don't know but he really wants to get rid of me. Hush, Melchisedek! Don't whine. I didn't intend to hurt you. That's what I meant, Cousin Ted, when I asked you about following him up. How far is it safe to go?" "Till you get there," Mr. Farrington replied. "Billy!" his wife remonstrated.