"_Gay?_ Oh, bewilderingly, intensely gay! Yes, it was just that--'gay,' and nothing more. The party was all right, indeed better than most, from a high moral point of view, for my hair staid in curl and my gloves didn't burst; I danced with the most stylish goose in the room; I ate an ice with conceited Tom Lefferts in the conservatory; I opened and shut my fan and smiled and raised my eyebrows the requisite number of times to produce the effect of having a delightful time! Oh-- 'I would not pass another such an eve, Though 't were to buy a world of happy days.'" This vivid speech was uttered in irony so cold that it would have been quite thrilling if Nan hadn't given the pillow another vehement poke in the middle, which made its four corners swell up in stiff remonstrance. "Goodness!" exclaimed Cathy, with a laugh, "what in the world are you going to do about it, Nan? There is a full supply of nonsense in the world, I admit, but we can't reform the feature of the time, and we must have some fun----" "_Fun!_" interrupted Nan hotly. "Who is objecting to fun? Who loves fun better than I? But who has fun at these shows? Did you have a really happy time to-night, Cathy? Own up now. You know that, when the flutter is over, you can't remember one single thing worth remembering. Does it pay?" "But we can't help it. What are you going to do--turn blue-stocking or prig, Nannie, love?" mildly inquired Evelyn. "'Prig'--'blue-stocking'--no, I hate the very words," said Nan, adding, "I'm seeking just what you are; the only difference is, _I'm_ going to get it and you are not. But go on, sweet children, go on giving your hair extra frizzlings, go on smiling divinely at vapid nothings, and eating numberless plates of cream--it is a noble future to contemplate! But let me tell you, deluded creatures, that you will drag home just so many times neither benefited nor amused, and the last state of all such will be worse than the first. Let us weep!" [Illustration: THE GIRLS DISCUSS THE PARTY.] And now the poor pillow went flying off upon the floor, while Nan laughed at her own peroration. Her spell-bound hearers gave two gigantic sighs, while Cathy seized a cologne-bottle to restore Evelyn, who reclined tragically upon the lounge, feigning to be completely overcome. After they had succeeded in controlling their emotions, Cathy said in a wailing voice: "Yes, Nan, I have a realizing sense that you are more than half right; for I do believe that, when, after such an evening, I survey my giddy self in the glass, I sigh more often than I smile." Nan, who was venting her yet unspent spite in braiding her hair into tight little curls, gave her head an emphatic nod and declared her fell intention of finding some way out of her slough of despond. Then as the last braid dwindled to three hairs, she descended from the platform, and thus concluded: