“Not when the bill came in, and he found that it cost rather more than a large hat. I said that he ought to be content to pay for the principle of a thing. He replied that it looked as if the interest was all about all he could afford. I suppose he thought that was sarcastic.” “Men have such queer ideas of humor, anyhow,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin; “why, I know a man who once laughed heartily at a joke on himself.” “Perhaps he owed money to the man who made it, or wanted his vote for something,” said the girl with the classic profile. “Well, I’d like to know who first invented hat-pins,” said the brown-eyed blonde. “I am sure it was not a woman, because—” “It was a man, and he was either an old bachelor or a bigamist,” said the girl with the Roman nose. “I had two pins running straight into my scalp all during service on Sunday. Dick was with me, too, and it was so hard to look saintly when—” “Men always ask why we don’t tie our hats on, when we complain of pins,” said the girl with the dimple in her chin. “Wouldn’t we look nice with our jaws tied up like those of a small boy with the toothache?” “To say nothing of having our hearing so impaired that we couldn’t be sure whether compliments whispered into our ears were intended for us or were merely remarks made about other girls,” said the brown-eyed blonde. “Well, girls,” said the president, “I see you all resent it, as I do; and I’m just going to write that horrid man a letter telling him that the Teacup Club has too many serious topics to discuss to waste time upon anything relating to millinery.” “Speaking of millinery,” said the blue-eyed girl, “did you ever see anything as sweet as the new hats! I went with Elizabeth to select the ones for her trousseau the other day, and it did seem hard to me that a girl only has a chance _once_ in her life to buy as many hats as she really wants, and—” “Not to mention the fact that it is just at the time when she is so much interested in her future husband that she can’t give her whole mind to the subject,” broke in the girl with the eyeglasses. “Now, if she could only choose her trousseau a year after her marriage, instead of before.” “Yes; or even six months,” said the president. “Well, my new hat must cost five dollars less than I had hoped. I borrowed that amount from Tom last month; and—will you believe it?—he took it out of my allowance for this month, in spite of the fact that I told him I had spent it for his birthday present.” “But why didn’t you take it out of your housekeeping allowance? You usually do,” said the girl with the Roman nose.