"Then I can afford to quit thinking of them, I suppose.

It's only that I used to be quite a friend of Mildred's--but there! we needn't to go into that.

I've never been a friend of Henrietta Lamb's, though, and I almost wish she weren't taking such pains to be a friend of yours." "Oh, but she's not.

It's all on account of----" "On Mildred's account," Alice finished this for him, coolly.

"Yes, of course." "It's on account of the two families," he was at pains to explain, a little awkwardly.