"I'd enjoy being careless for once," said Harry.
"Women can be extravagant with everything but carelessness," she insisted. "Do you like this gown?"
"It is lovely—like yourself."
"Then perhaps you will be willing to take me to the party to-night. My mother will chaperon us."
"With these clothes that have just been hauled out of a saddle-bag?" said Harry with a look of alarm.
"Even rags could not hide the beauty of him," said Kelso as he came down from the porch to greet them. "And look at her," he went on. "Was there ever a fairer maid in spite of all her troubles? See the red in her cheeks and the diamond glow of youth and health in her eyes. You should see the young men sighing and guitaring around her."
"You'll hear me tuning up," Harry declared.
"That is father's way of comforting my widowhood," said Bim. "He has made a wonderful beauty mask and often he claps it on me and whistles up a band of sighing lovers. As a work of the imagination I am a great success."
"The look of you sets my heart afire again," the boy exclaimed.
"Come—put up your guitar and take mother and me to the party at Mrs. Kinzie's," said Bim. "A very grand young man was coming to take us in a wonderful carriage but he's half an hour late now. We won't wait for him."