"I suppose he is pretty well off," Jane would acknowledge, reluctantly, indefinitely. "Well off? I should say so! You ought to have twenty times what you do. Let them send this home for you--I'll take the risk." Thus in the course of a month or two Jane, to the bewilderment and surprise of her mother and sisters and everybody else, became more presentable than ever before in the whole course of her life. She fully merited, in fact, the sincere encomium finally bestowed by Mrs. Bates herself: "There, now! You're not the worst-looking girl in this town--not by a jugful!" Jane was seriously affected by this unstinted praise, and she was almost overwhelmed when her monitress showed the courage of her convictions by offering a place in her box. "Oh-h-h!" she mimicked, after Jane. "What does that mean? Will you or won't you?" "If I only could," said Jane; "it's the first thing of any account I've had a chance at since I don't know when. But I've got another engagement for that evening. I'm going to the university extension lecture with--I'm going to the university extension lecture; it's my regular night." She ended with a heavy downward inflection which she hoped was pronounced enough to conceal the tell-tale dislocation that had preceded it. "Indeed? Where does your lecture carry you?" "Over on the West side--to that Settlement." "Um. Bad neighborhood to be going into alone, at night." "I'm not going alone," returned Jane, with a kind of fluttering joyfulness. "Oh! with some girl friends, then? Not much better--that way." "I'm not going with any girl friends"--this accompanied by a perceptible palpitation of delight. She looked at Mrs. Bates with eyes that seemed to say, "Please go on; don't stop right there." "Oh, then, that kind, good brother, perhaps," suggested Mrs. Bates--going on. "No, not that kind, good brother." Jane's face was fairly beaming. "Some other kind, good young man, then." "Yes," responded Jane, with a challenging light on her countenance; "some other kind, good young man." "Ah! And when does your lecture end?" "At nine." "Before the other thing begins. Of course the lecture is much too instructive to lose, and then there's the fascination of a mile or two in a dirty street-car; but couldn't you look in on us between ten and half-past? The box is small, but I have a great fondness for those kind, good young men. Couldn't you induce one of them--any one at all, of course--to bring you, if he knew there was a place waiting for you both?" "The gentleman who is going to escort me," began Jane, rising suddenly to a very formal tone, "is--well, in fact, he--he doesn't go out very much," she proceeded, lapsing back into her former manner. "He's kind of quiet and retiring. I don't believe he'd ever go to anything like this."