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Chapter VII

I

Sheilah stopped at Nevin Baldwin's on her way home from school. Nevin opened the door himself, so she couldn't leave the note of explanation she had written to him. She was sorry. It would have been easier.

'Hello, Sheilah. I saw you coming,' he exclaimed, eyes shining at her. 'I don't seem to remember having had a call from you before, though all the other girls have paid their respects, of course! Say, that scarf of yours is a peach.'

It was red. So were Sheilah's cheeks. It was really her cheeks Nevin wanted to remark upon.

'Has your mother gotten back from Boston yet?' Sheilah inquired.

'Nope, but dad's inside having lunch, if it's a chaperon you're thinking about. But I promise to behave. Come on in.'

'Well,' calmly Sheilah went on, impervious to Nevin's facetiousness, 'I just stopped to ask you to tell your mother please not to call up my mother. About next Saturday, I mean. Because——' She hesitated.

Nevin had been lolling nonchalantly against the