VI.
It was put up to him frankly. Mrs. Reilly listened to his tentative excuses in silence and then said:
“Rhoda invited you first for Saturday night, and she already has one girl too many. Of course, if you choose to simply turn your back on your engagement and go to another party, I don’t know how Rhoda will feel, but I know how I should feel.”
And the next day his great-uncle, passing through the stock room, stopped and said: “What’s all this trouble about parties?”
Basil started to explain, but Mr. Reilly cut him short. “I don’t see the use of hurting a young girl’s feelings. You better think it over.”
Basil had thought it over; on Saturday afternoon he was still expected at both dinners and he had hit upon no solution at all.
Yale was only a month away now, but in four days Ermi
