I am not in the mood for--celebrations." "Oh, I didn't mean fireworks and the town band.

I just thought--" "Please don't.

I remember other birthdays too well." They had been great occasions, those birthdays of hers, ever since she was a little girl.

On the eighteenth she made her debut in society, and the gown she wore on that memorable evening was laid away upstairs, a cherished memento, to be kept as long as she lived.

Each year Rodgers Warren took infinite pains to please and surprise his idolized daughter.