"Well, you can't," Frederica said, helplessly. She had cut out the last quarter of her league meeting to come home and give Flora a music lesson. (Up-stairs, Mrs. Payton, listening to the thump of the scales, confided to Mrs. Childs that she didn't approve of Flora's playing on the piano. "The parlor is not the place for Flora," she said.) But, watched by Mr. Andrew Payton's marble eyes, the slow fingers went on stumbling over the keys, until Frederica and her pupil were alike disconsolate. "You poor dear!" Fred said, at last, putting an impulsive arm over the thin shoulders; "try _once_ more! And, Flora, Sam isn't the only man in the world. Come now, cheer up! You're well rid of Sam." "Sam?" said Flora, her face suddenly vindictive; "I ain't pinin' for no Sam! He was a low-down, no-account nigger--" The door-bell rang, and she jumped to her feet. "I must git my clean apron!" she said; and vanished into the pantry. Frederica waited, frowning uneasily; callers were not welcome at 15 Payton Street when Fred was at home--the consciousness of the veiled intellect up-stairs made her inhospitable. But it was only Laura and Howard Maitland, both of them tingling with the cold and overflowing with absurd and puppy-like fun. "Feed us! Feed us!" Laura demanded; "we've walked six miles, and we're perfectly dead!" "Pig!" said Fred; "wait till I yell to Flora. Flora! Tea!" Her heart was pounding joyously, but with it was the agonizing calculation as to how long it would be before Miss Carter and her charge came clopping down the front stairs on their way to the room where Mortimore had his supper. "I don't mind Laura," Fred told herself, "but if Howard sees Morty, I'll simply die!" "Don't you want me to light up?" Maitland was asking; and without waiting for her answer he scratched a match on the sole of his boot, and fumbled about the big, gilt chandelier to turn on the gas. "I didn't know you played, nowadays," Laura said, looking at the open piano. "Gracious, Freddy, you do everything!" "Oh, I'm only teaching poor Flora. She has musical aspirations. Howard, cheer up that fire!" Tea came, and Laura said kind things to Flora about the music lessons; and then they all three began to chatter, and to scream at each other's jokes, Frederica all the while tense with apprehension.... ("Miss Carter won't have the sense to hold on to him; he'll walk right in!") But, up-stairs, her mother, leaning over the balusters to discover who had called, had the same thought, and was quick to protect her. "It's your Lolly," Mrs. Payton said, coming back to her sister-in-law; "and I think I hear Mr. Maitland's voice. I must tell Miss Carter to go down the back stairs with Morty." Having given the order, through the closed door between the two rooms, she sat down and listened with real happiness to the babel of young voices in the parlor. "I do like to have Freddy enjoy herself, as a girl in her position should," she told Mrs. Childs; "just hear them laugh."