“That’s the one! That’s the chicken, Nellie!” she whispered. “Now, isn’t she a chicken? Don’t you think Harry is right? Turn around and watch her. They’ve gone ahead so far they’ll never see us now. Look! Just see her waddle! see her toddle! Aren’t those shoes the limit? And her fat legs inching along like that! I think she’s _disgusting_! How can my brother not be ashamed to be seen with her? And down here on Chestnut Street, too, where he might meet _anybody_! Think if that Grace Kendall should come along and see him! She’d never speak to him again. Oh, Nellie, isn’t she _dreadful_?” “Hush, dear! Somebody will hear you. Yes she’s pretty awful.” “But, Nellie, can’t we do something about it? Can’t Carey be ordered not to go with a thing like that any more? Why, even the girls in my school are talking about them. They call her my brother’s _girl_! Nellie, aren’t you going to _do_ anything about it? Aren’t you going to tell father, and have it stopped?” “Hush, darling! Yes, I’m going to do something—but I don’t know what yet. I don’t know what there is to do.” She tried to smile with her lips in a tremble; and, looking down, she saw that tears were rolling down the little sister’s cheeks. “Darling! Don’t do that!” she cried, roused out of her own distress. “Here, take my handkerchief, and brighten up a little. You mustn’t cry here; people will think something dreadful has happened to you.” “They can’t think any worse than it is,” murmured Louise, snubbing off a sob with the proffered handkerchief. “To have my nice, handsome big brother be a big _fool_ like that! Oh, I’d like to _kill_ that girl! I would! I’d like to choke her!” “Louie! Stop! This is awful!” cried Cornelia, horrified. “You mustn’t talk that way about anybody, no matter how much of a fool she is. Perhaps there’s another side to it. Perhaps Carey is just as much to blame. Perhaps the girl doesn’t know any better. Maybe she has no mother to teach her. Maybe Carey is sorry for her.” “He—didn’t look sorry; he looked glad!” murmured the little girl, trying to bring her emotions into control; “and anyhow I can’t help hating her. Even if she hasn’t got a mother, she doesn’t need to dip her face in a flour-barrel like that, and make eyes at my brother.”