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CHAPTER 2
ANALYZING
TRANSACTIONS

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

1. An account is a form designed to record changes in a particular asset, liability, owner’s

equity, revenue, or expense. A ledger is a group of related accounts.
2. The terms debit and credit may signify either an increase or a decrease, depending upon the
nature of the account. For example, debits signify an increase in asset and expense accounts but a
decrease in liability, owner’s capital, and revenue accounts.
3. a. Assuming no errors have occurred, the credit balance in the cash account resulted from
drawing checks for $1,850 in excess of the amount of cash on deposit.
b. The $1,850 credit balance in the cash account as of December 31 is a liability owed to the
bank. It is usually referred to as an “overdraft” and should be classified on the balance sheet as
4. a. aThe
liability.
revenue was earned in October.
b. (1) Debit Accounts Receivable and credit Fees Earned or another appropriately titled revenue
account in October.
(2) Debit Cash and credit Accounts Receivable in November.
5. No. Errors may have been made that had the same erroneous effect on both debits and credits,
such as failure to record and/or post a transaction, recording the same transaction more than
once, and posting a transaction correctly but to the wrong account.
6. The listing of $9,800 is a transposition; the listing of $100 is a slide.
7. a. No. Because the same error occurred on both the debit side and the credit side of the
trial balance, the trial balance would not be out of balance.
b. Yes. The trial balance would not balance. The error would cause the debit total of the trial
balance to exceed the credit total by $90.
8. a. The equality of the trial balance would not be affected.
2-1
© 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 b. On the income statement, total operating expenses (salary expense) would be overstated by
$7,500, and net income would be understated by $7,500. On the statement of owner’s equity,
the beginning and ending capital would be correct. However, net income and withdrawals
would be understated by $7,500. These understatements offset one another, and, thus, ending
owner’s equity is correct. The balance sheet is not affected by the error.
9. a. The equality of the trial balance would not be affected.
b. On the income statement, revenues (fees earned) would be overstated by $300,000, and
net income would be overstated by $300,000. On the statement of owner’s equity, the
beginning capital would be correct. However, net income and ending capital would be
overstated by
$300,000. The balance sheet total assets is correct. However, liabilities (notes payable) is
understated by $300,000, and owner’s equity is overstated by $300,000. The understatement
of liabilities is offset by the overstatement of owner’s equity, and, thus, total liabilities and
10. a. owner’s
From theequity is correct.
viewpoint of Surety Storage, the balance of the checking account represents an asset.
b. From the viewpoint of Ada Savings Bank, the balance of the checking account
represents a liability.

2-2
© 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 CHAPTER 2 Analyzing
Transactions
PRACTICE EXERCISES
PE 2–1A
1. Debit and credit entries, normal debit balance
2. Credit entries only, normal credit balance
3. Debit and credit entries, normal credit balance
4. Credit entries only, normal credit balance
5. Credit entries only, normal credit balance
6. Debit entries only, normal debit balance

PE 2–1B
1. Debit and credit entries, normal credit balance
2. Debit and credit entries, normal debit balance
3. Debit entries only, normal debit balance
4. Debit entries only, normal debit balance
5. Debit entries only, normal debit balance
6. Credit entries only, normal credit balance

PE 2–2A
Feb. 12 Office Equipment 18,000
Cash 7,000
Accounts Payable 11,000

PE 2–2B
Sept. 30 Office Supplies 2,500
Cash 800
Accounts Payable 1,700

2-3
© 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 CHAPTER 2 Analyzing
Transactions
PE 2–3A
July 9 Accounts Receivable 12,000
Fees Earned 12,000

PE 2–3B
Aug. 13 Cash 9,000
Fees Earned 9,000

PE 2–4A
Jan. 25 Jay Nolan, Drawing 16,000
Cash 16,000

PE 2–4B
June 30 Dawn Pierce, Drawing 11,500
Cash 11,500

PE 2–5A
Using the following T account, solve for the amount of cash receipts
(indicated by ? below).
Cash
Feb. 1 Bal. 14,750 93,400 Cash payments
Cash receipts ?
Feb. 28 Bal. 15,200

$15,200 = $14,750 + Cash receipts – $93,400

Cash receipts = $15,200 + $93,400 – $14,750 = $93,850

PE 2–5B
Using the following T account, solve for the amount of supplies expense
(indicated by ? below).
Supplies
Aug. 1 Bal. 1,025 ? Supplies expense
Supplies purchased 3,110
Aug. 31 Bal. 1,324

$1,324 = $1,025 + $3,110 – Supplies expense

Supplies expense = $1,025 + $3,110 – $1,324 = $2,811

2-4
© 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 CHAPTER 2 Analyzing
Transactions
PE 2–6A
a. The totals are unequal. The credit total is lower by $900 ($5,400 – $4,500).
b. The totals are equal since both the debit and credit entries were
journalized and posted for $720.
c. The totals are unequal. The debit total is higher by $3,200 ($1,600 + $1,600).

PE 2–6B
a. The totals are equal since both the debit and credit entries were
journalized and posted for $12,900.
b. The totals are unequal. The credit total is higher by $1,656 ($1,840 –
$184). c. The totals are unequal. The debit total is higher by $4,500 ($8,300
– $3,800).

PE 2–7A
a. Utilities Expense 7,300
Miscellaneous Expense 7,300

Utilities Expense 7,300

Cash 7,300

Note: The first entry in (a) reverses the incorrect entry, and the second
entry records the correct entry. These two entries could also be combined
into one entry as shown below; however, preparing two entries would
make it easier for someone to understand later what happened and why
the entries were
necessary.

Utilities Expense 14,600

Miscellaneous Expense 7,300
Cash 7,300

b. Accounts Payable 6,100

Accounts Receivable 6,100

2-5
© 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 CHAPTER 2 Analyzing
Transactions
PE 2–7B
a. Cash 8,400
Accounts Receivable 8,400

b. Supplies 2,500
Office Equipment 2,500

Supplies 2,500
Accounts Payable 2,500

Note: The first entry in (b) reverses the incorrect entry, and the second entry
records the correct entry. These two entries could also be combined into one
entry as shown below; however, preparing two entries would make it easier
for someone to understand later what happened and why the entries were
necessary.

Supplies 5,000
Office Equipment 2,500
Accounts Payable 2,500

PE 2–8A
Fuller Company
Income Statements
For Years Ended December 31
Increase/(Decrease)
2014 2013 Amount Percent
Fees earned $680,000 $850,000 $(170,000) –20.0%
Operating expenses 541,875 637,500 (95,625) –15.0%
Net income $138,125 $212,500 $ (74,375) –35.0%

PE 2–8B
Paragon Company
Income Statements
For Years Ended December 31
Increase/(Decrease)
2014 2013 Amount Percent
Fees earned $1,416,000 $1,200,000 $216,000 18.0%
Operating expenses 1,044,000 900,000 144,000 16.0%
Net income $ 372,000 $ 300,000 $ 72,000 24.0%

2-6
© 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 CHAPTER 2 Analyzing
Transactions
EXERCISES
Ex. 2–1
Balance Sheet Accounts Income Statement
Accounts
Assets
Revenue
Flight Equipment Cargo and Mail
a
Revenue Purchase Deposits for Flight Equipment Passenger
Revenue Spare Parts and Supplies
Liabilities Expenses

Accounts Payable Aircraft Fuel Expense

b c
Air Traffic Liability Commissions (Expense)
Landing Fees (Expense)d
Owner’s Equity
None

a
Advance payments (deposits) on aircraft to be delivered in the future
b
Passenger ticket sales not yet recognized as revenue
c
Commissions paid to travel agents
d
Fees paid to airports for landing rights

Ex. 2–2
Account
Account Number

Accounts Payable 21
Accounts Receivable 12
Cash 11
Fees Earned 41
Gina Kissel, Capital 31
Gina Kissel, Drawing 32
Land 13
Miscellaneous Expense 53
Supplies Expense 52
Wages Expense 51

Note: Expense accounts are normally listed in order of magnitude from largest
to smallest with Miscellaneous Expense always listed last. Since Wages
Expense is normally larger than Supplies Expense, Wages Expense is listed as
account number 51 and Supplies Expense as account number 52.

2-7
© 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 CHAPTER 2 Analyzing
Transactions
Ex. 2–3
Balance Sheet Accounts Income Statement
Accounts
1. Assets 4.
Revenue
11 Cash 41 Fees Earned
12 Accounts Receivable
13 Supplies 5. Expenses

14
Prepaid Insurance 51 Wages Expense
15 Equipment 52 Rent Expense
53 Supplies Expense
2. Liabilities 59 Miscellaneous
21 Accounts Payable Expense
22 Unearned Rent

3. Owner’s Equity
31 Ivy Bishop, Capital
32 Ivy Bishop, Drawing

Note: The order of some of the accounts within the major classifications is
somewhat arbitrary, as in accounts 13–14, accounts 21–22, and accounts 51–
53. In a new business, the order of magnitude of balances in such accounts
is not determinable in advance. The magnitude may also vary from period to
period.

Ex. 2–4
a. debit g. debit
b. credit h. credit
c. credit i. debit
d. credit j. credit
e. debit k. debit
f. credit l. debit

Ex. 2–5
1. debit and credit entries (c)
2. debit and credit entries (c)
3. debit and credit entries (c)
4. credit entries only (b)
5. debit entries only (a)
6. debit entries only (a)
7. debit entries only (a)

2-8
© 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 CHAPTER 2 Analyzing
Transactions
Ex. 2–6
a. Liability—credit e. Asset—debit
b. Asset—debit f. Revenue—
c. Owner’s equity g. credit
Asset—debit
(Amanda Whitmore, Capital)—credit h. Expense—debit
d. Owner’s equity i. Asset—debit
(Amanda Whitmore, Drawing)—debit j. Expense—debit

Ex. 2–7
2014
July 1 Rent Expense 3,200
Cash 3,200

3 Advertising Expense 750

Cash 750

5 Supplies 1,300
Cash 1,300

6 Office Equipment 12,500

Accounts Payable 12,500

10 Cash 11,400
Accounts Receivable 11,400

15 Accounts Payable 1,175

Cash 1,175

27 Miscellaneous Expense 600

Cash 600

30 Utilities Expense 180

Cash 180

31 Accounts Receivable 33,760

Fees Earned 33,760

31 Utilities Expense 1,300

Cash 1,300

31 Dennis Isberg, Drawing 4,000

Cash 4,000

2-9
© 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 CHAPTER 2 Analyzing
Transactions
Ex. 2–8
a.
JOURNAL Page 19

Post.
Date Description Ref. Debit Credit
2014 Adjusting Entries
May 22 Supplies 15 6,180
Accounts Payable 21 6,180
Purchased supplies on account.
b., c., d.
Account: Supplies Account No. 15

Post. Balance
Date Item Ref. Debit Credit Debit Credit
2014
May 1 Balance 9 1,500
22 19 6,180 7,680

Account: Accounts Account No. 21

Payable

Post. Balance
Date Item Ref. Debit Credit Debit Credit
2014
May 1 Balance 9 16,750
22 19 6,180 22,930

e. Yes, the rules of debit and credit apply to all companies.

Ex. 2–9
a. (1) Accounts Receivable 48,600
Fees Earned 48,600

(2) Supplies 1,975

Accounts Payable 1,975
(3) Cash 31,400
Accounts Receivable 31,400

(4) Accounts Payable 1,350

Cash 1,350

2-10
© 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 CHAPTER 2 Analyzing
Transactions

Ex. 2–9 (Concluded)

b.
Cash Accounts Payable
(3) 31,400 (4) 1,350 (4) 1,350 (2) 1,975

Supplies Fees Earned

(2) 1,975 (1) 48,600

Accounts
Receivable
(1) 48,600 (3)
31,400

c. No. A credit balance in Accounts Receivable could occur if a

customer overpaid his or her account. Regardless, the credit
balance should be investigated to verify that an error has not
occurred.

Ex. 2–10
a. The increase of $140,000 ($515,000 – $375,000) in the cash account does
not indicate net income of that amount. Net income is the net change in all
assets and liabilities from operating (revenue and expense) transactions.

b. $60,000 ($200,000 – $140,000)

or

Cash
X 375,000
515,000
200,000

X + $515,000 – $375,000 = $200,000

X = $200,000 – $515,000 + $375,000
X = $60,000

2-11
© 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 CHAPTER 2 Analyzing
Transactions
Ex. 2–11
a. Accounts Payable

Mar. 1 X
276,500 261,000
Mar. 31 76,000

X + $261,000 – $276,500 = $76,000

X = $76,000 + $276,500 – $261,000
X = $91,500

b. Accounts
July 1 Receivable
49,000 525,000
X
July 31 61,500

$49,000 + X – $525,000 = $61,500

X = $61,500 + $525,000 – $49,000
X = $537,500

c. Cash
Sept. 1 28,440 X
112,100
Sept. 30 33,200

$28,440 + $112,100 – X = $33,200

X = $28,440 + $112,100 – $33,200
X = $107,340

Ex. 2–12
a. Debit (negative) balance of $16,000 ($314,000 – $10,000 – $320,000).
This negative balance means that the liabilities of Waters' business
exceed the assets.
b. Yes. The balance sheet prepared at December 31 will balance, with Terrace
Waters, Capital, being reported in the owner’s equity section as a negative
$16,000.

2-12
© 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 CHAPTER 2 Analyzing
Transactions
Ex. 2–13
a. and b.
Account Debited Account Credited
Transaction Type Effect Type Effect

(1) asset + owner’s equity +

(2) asset + asset –
(3) asset + asset –
liability +
(4) expense + asset –
(5) asset + revenue +
(6) liability – asset –
(7) asset + asset –
(8) expense + asset –
(9) drawing + asset –

Ex. 2–14
(1) Cash 75,000
Luis Chavez, Capital 75,000

(2) Supplies 4,000

Cash 4,000
(3) Equipment 25,000
Accounts Payable 22,000
Cash 3,000
(4) Operating Expenses 2,700
Cash 2,700
(5) Accounts Receivable 19,500
Service Revenue 19,500
(6) Accounts Payable 9,000
Cash 9,000
(7) Cash 11,000
Accounts Receivable 11,000
(8) Operating Expenses 2,000
Supplies 2,000

(9) Luis Chavez, Drawing 5,000

Cash 5,000

2-13
© 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 CHAPTER 2 Analyzing
Transactions
Ex. 2–15
a. GRAND CANYON TOURS
CO.
Unadjusted Trial
Balance Debit Credit
April 30, 2014 Balances Balances
Cash 62,300
Accounts Receivable 8,500
Supplies 2,000
Equipment 25,000
Accounts Payable 13,000
Luis Chavez, Capital 75,000
Luis Chavez, Drawing 5,000
Service Revenue 19,500
Operating Expenses 4,700
107,500 107,500

b. Net income, $14,800 ($19,500 – $4,700)

2-14
© 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
 CHAPTER 2 Analyzing
Transactions
Ex. 2–16
LEAF CO. Unadjusted
Trial Balance December
31, 2014
Debit Credit
Balances Balances
Cash 13,500 *
Accounts Receivable 38,100
Supplies 3,200
Prepaid insurance 6,400
Land 40,000
Accounts Payable 23,500
Unearned Rent 13,500
Notes Payable 50,000
Dan Leafdale, Capital 50,000
Dan Leafdale, Drawing 16,000
Fees Earned 538,000
Wages Expense 476,800
Rent Expense 36,000
Utilities Expense 18,000
Supplies Expense 9,000
Insurance Expense 6,000
Miscellaneous Expense 12,000
675,000 675,000

*$13,500 = $675,000 – $12,000 – $6,000 – $9,000 – $18,000 – $36,000 – $476,800 – $16,000

– $40,000 – $6,400 – 3,200 – $38,100

Ex. 2–17
Inequality of trial balance totals would be caused by errors described in (c) and
(e). For (c), the debit total would exceed the credit total by $9,900 ($4,950 +
$4,950). For (e), the credit total would exceed the debit total by $17,100 ($19,000 –
$1,900).

Errors (b), (d), and (e) would require correcting entries. Although it is not a correcting
entry, the entry that was not made in (a) should also be entered in the journal.

2-15
© 2014 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be scanned, copied or duplicated, or posted to a publicly accessible website, in whole or in part.
Other documents randomly have
different content
 Clover smiled at his enthusiastic tone. "You are in the first-day
frame of mind, I see."
"What is that?"
"Oh, eagerness and hopefulness."
"And what is the second?"
"Despair; yes, overwhelming, stony despair."
"What is the third? Suicidal tendency?"
"No indeed. Resignation. At first one expects and determines to
see everything; soon finds that to be so impossible that he yields to
his bewilderment, and at last accepts the inevitable and sets himself
to see what he can, and be rapturously content therewith."
"Thank you, thank you! Forewarned, forearmed. Perhaps we
may even skip the second stage."
A few days later, Clover, her guests having scattered on various
quests, went to the noon orchestral concert in Festival Hall. This
wonderfully generous free exhibit attracted a large audience, many
of whom embraced it as an opportunity to rest from the fatigues of
sight-seeing, while many others, coming perhaps from the country
where "hearing a band" was a rare privilege, were drawn thither by
the hope of attractive music.
Possibly one half the number came intelligently to the feast, and
greeted the conductor when he entered upon the stage. Clover
joined in the applause as Theodore Thomas passed before his
players with that quiet, characteristic grace, which has power to thrill
with anticipation a greater number of America's music-lovers than
the movement of any other man.
It interested her as it had many a time before, this summer, to
note the effect upon certain of the audience of the number with
which the programme opened. She saw pleased hopefulness give
way to apathy in many faces, as strange harmonies and dissonances
fell upon uncultivated ears. She noticed one patient-faced
countryman who waited through two numbers, evidently discovering
nothing but a wilderness of sound. He then examined his
programme, and not finding "After the Ball" on it, arose and
departed from the hall more in sorrow than anger.
Blessings on the man, by the way, who introduced the noiseless
paper on which those programmes were printed. There were two
girls sitting next to Clover, chewing gum while they listened for some
melody they could recognize, and Clover congratulated herself that
all the foldings and drummings of their programmes were inaudible;
but alas, as soon as the maidens discovered that the music they
were hearing was unworthy the name, they cheerfully set about
doing the next best thing, which was to prepare for the afternoon's
campaign. This was a free concert anyway, so no matter if it wasn't
worth much. They would not leave at once, because this was a
better place to rest than they would be likely to find soon again; so
they unfolded their maps of the grounds, not printed on absorbent
paper, far from it, and proceeded to discuss their plans.
Clover caught sight of Jack standing across the hall. He
discovered her at the same moment. His concentrated look flashed
into a smile as they exchanged nods.
At the close of the number he came around to where Clover sat
in the front row of the circle, and leaned his arm on the railing in
front of her.
"How handsome Jack can look, when he is happy and
interested," she thought, and instantly became aware that her
neighbors had ceased their planning, and were nudging each other
in silent absorption.
"Wasn't that great!" he exclaimed. "Are you going over to the
Music Hall this afternoon?"
"Indeed I am. They are going to play the Tschaikowsky
Symphony."
"That settles it. Suppose we go up in the wheel after lunch, and
then go over to the concert together."
"All right. I'd like to. Why, there is Mildred on the left, down
there near the front. I didn't know she was coming."
"Nor I. Shall I go and speak to her?"
In a minute Jack was back, just as the music began again. The
girls who had constituted the thorn in Clover's side during the first
half of the programme had left their seats as soon as he moved
away, so he came in and took the place beside Clover.
"Mildred says she will go with us," he whispered.
When the Intermezzo was finished, Clover spoke.
"Did you ask Mildred to join us?" she asked.
"No, she proposed it," returned Jack, and there was a pleasure
in his eyes which did not escape his companion.
"You mentioned last night in our talk that you hadn't seen much
of Mildred since you came; that she was too much of a belle for your
comfort."
"Yes. It is simply surprising to find her here alone."
Clover's eyes twinkled. She had mentioned to her sister, this
morning, that she meant to meet Jack at the noon concert.
"Well, you leave her to me. No matter what I say, don't
contradict me. Promise?"
 "What's up?" asked Van Tassel doubtfully.
"Oh, Mildred's conceit and a few other things that ought to
come down. I want you to myself a part of the time, Jack."
Her companion met her laughing glance.
"I am yours to command, Clover, always."
"Don't forget, then," she answered.
When the concert was over, Mildred came slowly up the aisle,
superb as usual in her consciously unconscious carriage.
"Well," she said to her sister as they met, "where are we to
lunch?"
"Are you going to lunch with us?" asked Clover in well-affected
surprise.
"Of course I am," returned the younger with a half-pouting
smile flung at Jack; "and I am going in the Ferris Wheel with you
too. I haven't been up in it yet."
"Why, I don't see how you possibly can, Mildred," said Clover
coolly. "I heard you promise Mr. and Mrs. Page to meet them in the
Art Gallery at two o'clock, and show Mrs. Page some of our favorite
pictures."
Mildred expected some protest from Jack, and was disconcerted
that none came. "I only told them that if I was at the south entrance
at two o'clock I would act as their cicerone," she answered.
"Well, my dear, having said so much," suggested Clover gravely,
"I think the least you can do is to be there, considering that they are
our guests."
Still Jack did not interfere. Mildred could not forbear hurling one
glance at him from beneath her eyelashes, but it might have been a
gaze. Van Tassel was absently viewing the dispersing audience.
 Her eyes and cheeks burned as they had on the night he
refused to accompany her to witness the fireworks, but as on that
occasion she carried the matter with a high hand.
"Very well, then you have lost my company at lunch, too. You
and Jack would be sure to make me late, dawdling at table. Au
revoir," and as they nodded to her, she swept away.
Clover looked at her companion and tried to repress the mirthful
laugh that bubbled over her lips.
"Jack, you wouldn't be human if you hadn't enjoyed that."
"Then I must be inhuman," he responded rather ruefully, "for I
give you my word I'm scared almost to death."
"Don't you worry, mon ami; I know Mildred to the depths of her
noble, generous, overbearing, over-indulged soul."
"I don't suppose you realize, Clover," Van Tassel spoke low and
jerkily, "but I care very much; absurdly much, you might think,
considering the shortness of the time."
Clover looked into his flushed face, and the merriment in her
sweet eyes was quenched.
"Dear Jack," she said, laying her hand lightly on his arm,
"whatever you wish, I wish. Trust me. No harm has been done. Do
you want my advice,—the advice of one who knows?"
"Yes, I do."
"Then don't let Mildred suspect what you have told me. The
round world is just a rattle to her now. You are one of the bells on it
that jingle for her amusement when she moves you. There are
Katherines in existence still, and Petruchios are wholesome teachers
for them."
"Imagine me cracking a horsewhip at Mildred!"
 "Out, please!" roared a Columbian Guard, exasperated by the
sight of these two loiterers, after the remainder of the audience had
drifted away. "As if there wasn't any other place on the grounds to
spoon but just this," he muttered.
Mildred, to her credit be it said, devoted her afternoon to Mrs.
Page with as cheerful courtesy as though she bore no grudge in her
mind against the world. Mr. Page left them together and went off
somewhere under his brother's guidance. It was nearly dinner-time
when he drove up to the house in a Beach wagon, and found
Mildred swinging idly in a hammock on the piazza.
"Your wife is taking a nap," she announced, as he came up the
steps.
"Fortunate woman!" he responded, sinking wearily upon a
wicker divan. "The only interest I've had for hours in any exhibit was
as to whether there was a chair in it; but Gorham is a terrible fellow.
Merciless. Each building being one thousand miles from every other
building makes it hard lines. I threatened more than once to trip
over one of those chains that say 'Keep off the grass,' and refuse to
get up again."
"You and your brother should have taken one of those double
chairs."
"Oh, there wouldn't have been any room for Gorham," and the
jolly man laughed. "I suppose you have done the Plaisance."
"Partly, yes."
"Gorham and I went into the Dahomey village, this afternoon.
Some of those savages were unpleasantly personal. Good afternoon,
Aunt Love," as the housekeeper appeared on the veranda. "I was
just telling Miss Mildred how those children of nature in the
Dahomey village injured my finer feelings to-day. One of them came
for me with a big carving knife, yelling 'Big man, fat man,' and going
through the pantomime of taking a slice off my sacred person."
"Dirty critters!" remarked Miss Berry sententiously.
"Isn't it a funny paradox to see an incandescent light over the
door of each hut?" went on Page. "There was one big fellow
squatted down in the sun, off by himself, playing on a rough sort of
a harp, and singing monotonously something that sounded like
'Come away, come away, Chicago.' I tried to write down the pitches
he sang, and that amused him immensely. His ivories would have
made a perfect dentist's sign. I gave him a dime or so to repeat the
performance, a sufficient number of times, and he was delighted,
and kept saying 'Chicago beer.'"
"Yes," returned Miss Berry bitterly. "They have to come to a
Christian land for that."
"Wait till you see the South Sea Islanders," said Mildred.
"We did. Fine, aren't they? There is an exhibition of drill and
muscle worth seeing."
"And that café-au-lait skin!" exclaimed Mildred. "I am entirely
spoiled for white beauties."
"Let 'em wear somethin' more 'n a straw wreath and a piece o'
calico then," remarked Miss Berry.
"But Aunt Love," suggested Page, "you must remember how
clothing that brown skin is. I am sure you must admit it is an
improving sight to see one of those heavy-eyed beauties sit cross-
legged, and absently scratch one great toe while she sings."
"What are you all laughing about?" asked Hilda, coming out
upon the piazza in the freshness of a light organdie gown.
 "Your husband has been to the Midway," returned Miss Berry.
"Don't be surprised at anything he may say or do; and I don't
believe we'd better wait for Mr. and Mrs. Van Tassel any longer, for
dinner was ready when I came out here."
"I don't understand Clover's staying so," remarked Mildred,
leaving the hammock and trying not to speak severely.
"I go, I fly, to make myself presentable," said Page, slowly
dragging himself up from his comfortable resting-place.
After dinner Mildred made an opportunity to address the
housekeeper privately. "For pity's sake, Aunt Love, when you are
going to speak of Jack and Clover as you did this evening, don't say
Mr. and Mrs. Van Tassel."
"Why not?" asked Miss Lovina with exasperating
unconsciousness.
"Why, it sounds so—so—absurdly married."
Miss Berry smiled. "What shall I say then?"
"Mrs. and Mr. Van Tassel, of course," replied Mildred, making an
effort to speak with a suavity she did not feel.
"Well, if that ain't a new idea. Mrs. and Mr.! Do tell!" said Miss
Berry good-naturedly. "Oh, I'll learn a deal of etiquette to take back
to Pearfield. It's enough to do a body good to see Mr. Jack and your
sister so much to each other, ain't it? Seems if they have lots o'
pleasure together now; just as it should be."
"I don't know that they are together so very much," returned
Mildred coolly.
"That's 'cause you're off so much o' the time. Why, they're just
the best friends that ever was; and Mrs. Van Tassel, she's gone back
before my eyes from a grave woman full or care to a merry girl just
as free as a bird. It does me good, Miss Mildred. It does me so much
good, I'm 'most afraid I shall grow fat on it."
Mildred's bright eyes looked thoughtful for a second, as though
she were digesting the housekeeper's words. "There is Blitzen,
barking," she exclaimed, and both hastened to see whether Electra's
nervous system was receiving some fresh shock.
Gorham Page strayed over from the hotel, as was his habit after
dinner, and found the family disposed in various comfortable chairs
and hammocks about the piazza.
The autocratic Miss Bryant was feeling a trifle sore, although
she did not dream of acknowledging to herself that it was because
Clover and Jack still remained away, and in the present sensitive
state of her self-love it was a new affront that Gorham did not at
once seek her side, but after bowing to her, settled down beside
Mrs. Page, who closed the book she was reading upon her finger as
a marker.
"Yes indeed, the afternoon was delightful," she said, in answer
to his question. "Mildred and I had a charming time among the
pictures. You nearly committed fratricide. Do you see poor Robert
fast asleep over there?"
"This will do him a world of good. Train down his flesh, and
strengthen his muscle; though the poor old chap did say, before we
decided to come home, that he had walked so long his feet splayed
out like the camels' every time he set them down." Page laughed
reminiscently.
"Camels? Did you go into Cairo Street?"
"No, to the Bedouin village; the Wild East show."
 "Very well. You have just saved your lives. I understand that
Cairo Street is one of the plums of the Plaisance, and if Robert had
gone without me, I should have been highly offended."
"Yes, he is well trained. I wonder if my wife will find me as
thoughtful. I am afraid not."
Hilda laughed at the sincere meekness of his tone. "No, I'm sure
she won't, for the simple reason that you will never have one."
"I should be sorry to think that."
"Then why don't you do as nine out of every ten men in your
place would do?"
"You mean fall in love? You know, Hilda, how often I've done
that."
Mrs. Page laughed again at the gently remonstrant tone. "Your
sort of falling in love isn't worth two straws," she declared scoffingly.
"Don't take that into consideration at all. The next woman you meet
who satisfies you intellectually, propose to her. If she accepts you,
marry her. I don't believe you would make her very unhappy. You
wouldn't if you were as kind a husband as you are a brother."
"Thank you. You might give me a written recommendation. See
how handsome Miss Bryant's face looks against that golden pillow."
"Yes; it is a proof of your hard heart that you withstand her."
"I don't withstand her. You have no idea how much I enjoyed an
afternoon I had with her at the Fair last week; but Jack was
remarkably short with me that evening, and I fancied I had
trespassed on his preserves."
"Not a bit of it. He must be a dog in the manger."
"Why, I'm very sure he is hard hit in that direction."
 "Oh, where are a man's eyes, I wonder! I haven't been here
very long, but long enough to discover the truth."
"I suppose you want me to ask you what truth?"
"No, I don't, my dear." Mrs. Page reopened her book.
"You are not hinting at—at—Mrs. Van Tassel?" Gorham spoke in
a hushed tone.
"Just observe for yourself," said Hilda sententiously.
"You ought not to have such a thought."
Mrs. Page looked up, wondering at this severity. "Why, if you
please? You surely haven't an idea that that young creature is going
to sacrifice the rest of her life to a memory of duty done?"
"But Hilda, that is repugnant!" Page rose suddenly, and his
sister's gaze followed him as he moved away. It was very unusual for
him to show so much feeling. "Wouldn't it be a strange, strange
thing if after waiting all these years Gorham should love at last and
love hopelessly?" She banished the query with a sigh. Sober second
thought assured her that her brother had not meant more than he
said. The idea that Jack might wish to marry his father's widow was
distasteful to him, and that was all.
Page approached Mildred, little realizing how indefensible she
considered it that he had not done so some minutes previous. She
was too glad of his presence, however, to punish him. It would never
do for Jack to come home and suppose that she had not been
holding court.
"What beautiful evenings you have in Chicago," he began. "May
I take this chair?" drawing one near the hammock in which she was
sitting against a nest of pillows, her foot touching the floor gently as
she rocked.
 "Yes, I never tire of seeing the moonlight on the water as it is
shining to-night. When I was a little girl it was a great treat to me to
be allowed to spend a summer evening on this piazza, and I enjoy it
scarcely less now."
"You enjoy it very seldom, I observe."
"Yes, of course there are lots of engagements this summer, and
a quiet evening at home like this seems very welcome occasionally.
One likes too, sometimes, to renew acquaintance with the moon.
After living among rosy, violet, pale green, and white search lights,
and all sorts of spectacular electrical effects so much, one comes
back to moonlight on the water as to an old friend."
The girl clasped her hands above her head upon the down
pillow, and allowed Page to look at her, which he was not slow to do.
"I miss your sister and Jack, this evening. Where are they?"
"Columbus knows! Since the authorities have been Barnumizing
the Fair, as they call it, one is led on to stay, and stay, and stay, to
see this race or that dance or the other illumination. I left them after
the noon concert."
"You were there, then. Of course you are fond of music."
"I enjoy it very much, although Clover says I don't. She and
Jack are cranks about it. I am not."
"They have one strong predilection in common, then."
Mildred did not reply; and Page continued: "The effect of music
upon a person who is in sympathy with it is an interesting study.
Those involuntary chills that pass over one under the moving
influence of good music are rather annoying to me. I do not wish to
be moved uncontrollably by anything. I wish to decide just how
deeply to feel on any subject. Do you know what I mean?"
 "Yes, exactly." The decision of the girl's reply rather surprised
her companion. She let him look deep into her luminous eyes set in
the moonlight fairness of her face. "And further than agreeing with
you in the desirability of the principle," she added, "I carry the
theory into practice."
"Do you mean to say that you are always able to let your head
decide what your heart shall feel?"
"Invariably."
"But that is no common characteristic in a woman. With women
the heart speaks first usually."
"Not in the case of the well-balanced woman."
"Then perhaps you can tell me," said Page, much surprised and
interested, "perhaps you will be good enough to tell me what your
ideas are concerning love. There, too, do you think it possible for the
head to speak first?"
Mildred let a repressed laugh burst its bounds. "Do you mean,
do I think it possible to fall in love head first?"
"Forgive me if I ask too much; but it seems to me very helpful
to compare notes with one whose aims and desires are similar to
your own."
"Oh, I don't mind telling you, Mr. Page," said the girl, sobering.
"My ideas on the subject are clearly formulated, and I know of no
reason why I should not impart them to one who will be
appreciative. I believe a woman can decide what characteristics
would be sympathetic with hers, and when she is sufficiently
acquainted with a man to discover if he is possessed of those
qualities, she can give rein to her heart, and love him"—the speaker
suddenly extended her white hands before her—"love him with all
her soul!"
The sudden thrill in her movement and in her low contralto
voice electrified her listener by its unexpectedness.
"But can one always love where the head dictates?" he asked;
"that is the question."
"Undoubtedly; for when one finds the combination she seeks,
she will discover that she has loved it already. I will tell you, Mr.
Page, you tempt my confidence because you captivate my judgment.
I will describe to you the man I await. He must be good to look
upon, for I value beauty of form; but he must be cool and steady of
brain, must love to think, to analyze, to look upon life not as a
plaything but as something the laws of which must be studied and
explored continually. Incidents which appear trifling to others, to him
will suggest a thousand questions. He must in short be a student of
human nature whose researches I may, by-and-by, as I grow wiser,
assist. Oh, proud, happy destiny!" She paused as though overcome,
and grasping the sides of the hammock looked with a quick turn of
her head toward the moonlight.
Page regarded her in silence, then leaned toward her in his
earnestness. "A man like that is not found every day, Miss Bryant;
but I congratulate you on your high standard; for the being you
describe has surely a great heart to throb for humanity as well as
the head to study it, and your affections will not be starved, I am
sure of that."
Mildred grasped the hammock closer and caught her lip
between her teeth. Page's unconsciousness had turned the tables,
and she had sufficient sense of humor, in spite of her vanity, to make
it difficult not to smile as he walked unseeing around her net, and it
fell, enveloping her own saucy head.

CHAPTER XIX.
THE FERRIS WHEEL.

It was half past nine when the wagonette bringing Clover and Jack
stopped before the house. They were received with a chorus of
questions, in which Mildred was too clever not to join. She was glad
that Van Tassel must see Gorham seated near her, apart from the
others, confidentially discoursing in the moonlight, even though Jack
did not seem to observe it. He seated himself on the step near Mrs.
Page, and leaned against a railing.
"We have had a fine time!" he exclaimed with what Mildred's
practiced ear recognized as unmistakable sincerity.
"Oh, the German village by moonlight, Milly!" added Clover,
taking a place near her sister. "You really ought to see it."
"We ought to have been there, Mr. Page," said Mildred
regretfully.
"I doubt if I could have had a pleasanter evening anywhere," he
returned; and if Miss Bryant had had power to decorate him she
would have done so on the spot for that timely speech. She trusted
Jack had heard it.
"We sat there at table, you know," went on the latter, "and saw
the moon come up over those quaint old gables. Oh, it was fine. I
declare, we didn't know where we were. Did we, Clover?"
 "I thought you were quite certain by the alleged German you
entertained me with."
"Alleged German! Well, if this isn't sad! There I wasted Heine's
poems by the yard on you. Ungrateful girl! You will never know all
the sweet things that were said to you to-night."
"I know you drank a lot of beer and smoked too many cigars."
"Of course, being in Rome I complimented the inhabitants by
imitation."
"Mr. Jack," spoke Miss Berry reproachfully, "I remember well
that you said once you only smoked on holidays and birthdays."
"Certainly, Aunt Love, that is my rule still. I never break it."
"Whose birthday is this?" demanded Miss Berry, somewhat
taken back.
"How should I know? Somebody's, surely." Jack looked up
innocently. "I never show favoritism."
"Oh!" groaned Gorham, rising. "I can't stay here. Discipline him,
Aunt Love. I am going to my uncontaminated roof-tree."
"Let us all take Gorham home," suggested Jack, also rising. "I'm
afraid to be left here with Aunt Love's righteous wrath. Come, all of
you. Nobody is too tired to walk to that music."
For the band on the hotel piazza was playing the Washington
Post March, which by midsummer was running neck and neck with
"After the Ball."
"Come, Robert," said Hilda, shaking the somnolent form in the
hammock.
"Hey? What? Don't disturb me. I can die here as well as
anywhere. What! Walk home with Gorham? Do you take me for an
idiot? Music and moonlight!" with deep scorn. "Oh, go to! Woman,
stand aside, or I shall do you an injury. Don't tempt a desperate
man."
"Dear Robert doesn't seem to care to come with us," laughed
Mildred sotto voce to Jack. She was determined that none other than
he should walk by her side to the hotel, and of course she had her
way.
An hour later she came into Clover's bedroom, brushing her
long hair. Her white wrapper fell open at the neck, disclosing her
handsome throat, and she looked particularly beautiful to her partial
sister.
"Where else did you and Jack go to-night beside the German
village?" she asked.
"Nowhere."
"You took supper there and stayed all the evening?"
"Yes. We really couldn't tear ourselves away. It was like being in
some romantic old story."
Mildred smiled and hummed her favorite bit from Iolanthe.
"No indeed," answered Clover. "I am not his mother. He doesn't
pretend that I am, and he doesn't wish me to be: so your little song
doesn't fit the case at all."
She did not look at her sister, but went on with her effort to
braid her rebellious hair. Mildred ceased humming.
"I wish my hair was curly," she said at last.
"We all have our gifts," replied Clover. Mildred thought her tone
sounded unusually complacent. It was a novel experience to feel
aught but compassion, or tenderness, or reverent admiration for
Clover, but now she suddenly found herself regarding her for the
first time as another girl like herself, and observing her attractions
with new eyes.
"What a pretty foot you have, Clover," she said, looking at her
sister's slippered feet.
"Not a bit better shaped than yours, my dear. Let us have a
select little mutual admiration society."
"But mine are large," returned Mildred, sitting down and
thrusting forth her slippers for inspection.
"So are you," suggested Clover.
"But isn't it strange that people never consider that, in speaking
of a woman's foot? She must have small feet irrespective of her size,
or else they had better never be seen or mentioned. In old novels a
man sometimes keeps his beloved's slipper under a glass case. What
a formidable piece of furniture my lover will have when he gets a
glass case for mine."
"Foolish child! You are proportioned just right."
"Perhaps; but what I say is that the consensus of opinion
decides that I ought not to be. Shoe men fall in with that idea.
Dainty shoes are small shoes. I tell you fame and wealth awaits the
shoe-dealer who becomes inspired with the idea that large women
want pretty shoes too."
"You seem to have made Mr. Page have a delightful evening,"
remarked Clover.
"Yes; he didn't ask for one of my slippers, though. Fancy sterling
cousin Page ordering a glass case!"
Clover smiled in answer to Mildred's laugh.
"What did you talk about?"
 "Oh, weights and measures, as usual. I wasn't in the mood to
be good, and I tried conscientiously to make a fool of our friend."
"Mildred!"
"No harm done; I didn't succeed. He made one of me instead.
This has been what you might term an off day for your little sister."
"What do you mean? How did he make a fool of you?" Clover
turned with so much curiosity in her gaze that Mildred rose quickly.
"I'll never tell you,—or hardly ever. Perhaps when we are both
married."
Clover turned back to the glass, and Mildred was a little
dismayed. The words had slipped out unthinkingly. Until this evening
she had agreed in her sister's acceptance of the fact that her life
could not be like that of other girls.
"Good-night," she said, standing back of Clover and meeting her
eyes in the mirror.
"Good-night," returned the other.
Mildred kissed her cheek. "Do you like me?" she asked softly.
"Pretty well," Mrs. Van Tassel smiled. "Lots better than you
deserve."
The younger sister went to her room satisfied. Arrogant and
autocratic she might be to her slaves, but Clover's approval was the
necessary sunshine in which her life blossomed.
Van Tassel had to put a guard upon his lips in the next days. He
was trying to follow Clover's advice not to ask Mildred again to go to
the Fair with him. It made the case harder, inasmuch as he could not
help feeling that now she expected it. He noticed that she did not
make outside engagements as much as before; but was oftener at
home, either sitting about the piazzas in gowns which Jack thought
the most becoming that ever girl wore, or else romping with Blitzen
and paying exasperating attention to Electra, who was fast
developing into the most self-assured and exacting chicken of the
Columbian year.
The following sort of scene was sometimes endured in anguish
by the lover who was disciplining his lady to order.
Jack was one morning reading the newspaper on the piazza,
Mildred sitting in the hammock, and Clover and Hilda training the
morning-glories.
"Why don't I go to the Fair?" Mildred said, addressing the lake,
resplendent with miles of diamonds.
Jack's hand closed on his paper in his longing to accept the
challenge; not being at all certain that he would not receive a
negative if he did, but still yearning to try his luck.
"Is it a conundrum?" asked Clover. "I can give a guess, if you
like."
"Thank you; you're always so kind, dear. Come, and go up in
the Ferris Wheel with me, Clover. If you will, that will decide me."
"I couldn't, really. I'm glad I have been. One must go, of course;
but twice, no, I couldn't." Clover passed near Jack, who threw an
imploring glance at her behind his paper. "I can feel my hair
whitening!" he murmured; but Mrs. Van Tassel frowned warningly
upon him.
"What a pity you didn't say something about it before Robert
went," said Hilda. "I think he means to go in the wheel to-day, as
that is one of the things I can't bring my mind to do."
"But you will have a hundred chances, Milly dear. Some of our
friends are always going," added Clover comfortingly.
 "Oh, don't trouble yourself," remarked Mildred with
nonchalance. "I assure you I can go when I like," and she rose and
sauntered into the house, followed by Hilda.
Clover laughed softly into the pink lips of a morning glory which
she held in her hand.
"This may be very good fun for you," said Van Tassel, his
unread paper dropped, "but let me tell you it is making an old man
of me."
"Do your own way then, Jack, and live to repent of it."
"But I don't want to have to repent."
"Then behave as though you had some backbone. Remember
Petruchio."
"Oh, that will do to say! Petruchio was married."
"All right. I wash my hands of you."
"No, no, don't, Clover."
Clover took pity on the clouded face.
"I'll give you a little bit of comfort, Jack," she said, gazing down
at him knowingly.
"Angel!"
"Oh, it is only a wee, wee bit; but Mildred is uncomfortable."
"I should think that was wee," returned Van Tassel, his face
falling.
"I don't know. It is the first time any man ever affected her that
much."
"A very poor recommendation, I should think," remarked Van
Tassel.
"Oh, Jack," Clover laughed, "I can see you would have had an
awful time without me."
 "I am having an awful time with you, Clover."
"Then gang your ain gait any time"—
"And may God have mercy on my soul, I suppose you mean,"
added Jack ruefully.
It was his habit to have flowers sent to the house almost daily,
and Clover often wore his roses; Mildred never. Van Tassel asked her
once if she never wore flowers, and she answered indifferently that
she often did.
"I have never happened to see you with any on," he said.
"Indeed?" she returned with one of her characteristic smiles.
"Then that must be because you never sent me any. Now don't look
like that. Jack. If you should send me flowers, now, do you know
what I should do with them?"
"Pitch them out the window, probably."
"No; for that would disfigure the lawn, and Clover is very
particular about the lawn. I should present them to Aunt Love."
So Jack only gave one impotent look into her starry eyes, and
continued to send his lavish floral gifts impersonally to the house.
But one morning Mildred came down with some sprays of
heliotrope fastened in her dress. Van Tassel was delighted; but
acting with blind faith in Clover, he did not appear to notice the
concession. He had won several words of commendation from his
mentor for the manner in which of late he had been playing his role.
He had even called upon Mildred's friend, Miss Eames, in response
to the latter's invitation, and had gone with her one day to the Art
Gallery, and after coming home praised her discriminating and
intelligent taste. It seemed to him an eternity since he had asked
Mildred to go anywhere with him.
 On this morning she waited for some remark upon her
decoration, but none came. Matters had become serious if such
condescension was not going to be gratefully received. The family
usually sauntered out upon the piazza after breakfast, and Van
Tassel took his paper with him to-day as usual. He was alive in every
nerve to the fact that Mildred had on a street dress, which meant
the Fair. He wondered profoundly, as he always did, what her plans
were and whom she was going with, but he gazed unseeingly into
his paper, and was dumb.
All of a sudden, a sort of electric shock seemed to pervade the
air about him. Mildred was standing at his side.
"Did you notice how perfect this heliotrope is?" she asked,
looking down, not at him, but at the blossoms on the lapel of her
jacket.
"It is pretty," he answered, wondering how soon his evil star
would lure him on to say the wrong thing.
His apparently indifferent manner piqued her still further. "If you
feel very good, and are sure you are going to be good all day, I will
give you a piece," she said, separating one spray from its fellows.
Van Tassel sprang to his feet, and in a second Mildred's fingers
were upon his coat.
"The round world is just a rattle to her, and you are one of the
bells on it that jingle when she moves you."
Clover's words were sounding warningly in his ears. He could
not help it. He only prayed to jingle in tune, for moved he was to the
depths of his being.
"You like heliotrope very much?" he asked, not daring to look
below her cool, fair forehead.
 "Yes. Sometimes, I think, best of all; but," with a sigh, "it goes
quickly." And she dropped her hands and moved back.
"Like all the happiest moments of life," said Jack, and something
leaped from his brown eyes that actually surprised Mildred, coming
out of the long train of indifferent days.
"Oh, if Jack is like that," she thought, and a new respect grew in
her for the man who ruled himself, and refused to submit to her
caprice.
"It is a clear day, Mildred. Let us go up in the Wheel," he said.
"Have you made the trip yet?"
"No, but I have a new idea about it. I'm sure it will make me
dizzy. It did Clover; and I think I shall be afraid, too."
"Don't give up going. I'm sure you will not be afraid. It is an
absolutely steady, safe motion, and the changing view is unique."
"No, indeed; I wouldn't give up going, only I think I would
rather go alone. I don't want any one to behold my weakness."
"Oh, very well." Van Tassel made a gesture of indifferent assent,
sat down, and returned to his paper. The little incident of the
heliotrope had done more to convince him of Clover's wisdom than
all her sage words. Its perfume stole up to him as he sat reading the
same line over twelve times.
Mildred moved away, outwardly calm, inwardly vexed with Jack
for his ready acquiescence.
She went into the house and met Clover. "Going to the Fair?"
asked the latter.
"Yes, I think so."
"Wait half an hour or so, and go with us."
 "I don't believe you will take my way, for I am going in the
Wheel."
"With Jack?"
"No, alone."
"Mr. Page wants to go again. Let me ask him. He is upstairs
writing a letter."
"Don't speak to him for anything."
"But I don't want you to go to the Midway alone, Milly. Hilda
and both Mr. Pages and I are going to the Anthropological Building
together. Do put off the Wheel, and come with us."
"No, I thank you. Our friend Gorham will be in his element,
getting your mental and physical strength tested up there in the
gallery. I wouldn't be in that revel for anything," and Mildred ran
upstairs.
Clover passed out upon the piazza.
"Is Mildred going to the Fair?" asked Van Tassel, looking up
quickly.
"Yes. I do wish for once, Jack, you had asked to go with her, for
she is bound for the Ferris Wheel."
"I did."
"And she refused?" exclaimed Clover in surprise and
exasperation. "Was there ever such an incomprehensible"—
"But she gave me this." Van Tassel exhibited his flower.
Clover looked interested. "Well, then, we are getting on," she
said, much pleased. "Go on being an icicle, Jack. It is the only way.
Don't for the world urge her to let you accompany her, even though
I don't like her to go alone. In the first place she would only retreat
as you advanced, and in the second it would probably be salutary for
her to stick among the clouds of heaven for a few hours, so I won't
worry about the Wheel."
Jack took his hat, lying on the chair beside him. "I think I will go
on down," he said. "There is a bare possibility, you know, that I may
meet Mildred. If she should be later than you expect in coming
home, you would better think of me as being the trap than of the
Wheel."
"You won't meet," sighed Clover. "What a foolish girl she is!"
To tell the truth, Mildred could not resist a certain suspicion of
her own foolishness, as she emerged upon the piazza a few seconds
later, ready to start. She was conscious of disappointment that Jack
was not in sight. It was a warm day, and starting off alone was not
inspiriting. It required all her pride to pursue her intention.
"You won't have a good time," prophesied Clover, and that
strengthened her waning determination; so with a light response she
set forth.
The Midway was a seething mass of humanity when she
reached it, and she had hardly entered the street when she met her
friend, Helen Eames. The latter greeted her eagerly, and began to
talk about an entertainment Mildred had attended recently with Jack
at her house.
Helen was voluble, and Mildred resented the tone in which she
spoke of Jack, so she parted with her friend as soon as civility
permitted, and passed on.
She began to feel that she was doing an absurd thing, to be
forlornly and doggedly pursuing her way among the motley crowd,
to the monotonous, rhythmic beat of drum, and the sing-song of
strange voices.
 Above their village the South Sea Islanders were pounding out
their measures from a hollow log, and across the road the daintier
Javanese rang muffled music from gongs and tinkling bells. Scenes
and sounds had grown familiar to Mildred, but to-day she found
neither truth nor poetry in them. Indian, Turk, and Bedouin passed
her by, but she kept eyes ahead on the mammoth wheel, circling
with ponderous deliberation. All she wished was to keep her word,
take the skyward trip, and return home.
"All the girls are delighted with Mr. Van Tassel," Helen Eames
had said.
"Silly thing! Does she suppose I will tell him?" thought Mildred,
too absorbed in her own cogitations to note the "vera gooda, vera
nice, vera sheep," of the jewelry venders, the stentorian
exhortations to enter the dance houses and theatres, or the
incessant "hot! hot! hot!" of those that offered the thin waffle-like
Zelabiah.
Mildred did not like to find in her own heart the wish that Van
Tassel had been with her, that Helen Eames might see him in his
proper place this morning. She must indeed have fallen from her
high estate if she could wish to display an admirer to another girl. All
men were her admirers. It had been a foregone conclusion so long
that she had never been obliged to harbor a thought of jealousy or
rivalry, and she instantly challenged and condemned this novel
weakness.
The Midway Plaisance was a strange place for introspection, yet
Mildred's thoughts were sufficiently absorbing. People were always
apt to turn and look a second time at her exceptionally vigorous
young beauty, but she passed on to-day, totally unconscious of the
glances bent upon her.
Might it be true that she had finally alienated Jack by her
persistently capricious treatment? "All the girls admired him!" He did
not fancy any of them, she was sure. If he cared for any woman, it
was Clover; and then the girl coolly and impartially compared her
gentle, sympathetic, tender sister with herself. Mildred possessed a
clear head, and as she dwelt upon her own and Clover's
characteristics, a sermon seemed preached to her amid that
crowded babel, in a small voice which the noisy tongues could not
drown.
"How would it be possible for a man in his senses to prefer
me?" she thought, raising her eyes to a delicate, bell-hung minaret
that pierced the cloudless sky. This novel humility impressed her
with gravity.
But she had reached her destination. She moved up with the
line to the ticket office that lay directly in her path, and bought her
bit of pasteboard mechanically. In a moment more the movement of
her fellow-passengers had brought her to the base of the wheel.
Those who have stood in that position know the effect of looking
straight up. Mildred, already feeling small, experienced a painful
physical sense of being overwhelmed. The monster had paused for
its cars to be filled, and she shrank from the prospect before her
with unprecedented sensations. If she allowed herself to be shut up
in that glass cab, it meant that two flights of two hundred and fifty
feet skyward must be taken ere she could regain her liberty.
"I believe I am trying to be nervous," she said to herself coldly.
"I did not know I was speaking truth to Jack this morning."
 Oh, if only she were not the vainest and most obstinate of girls,
this trip would be a pleasure instead of a pain!
The faint, steady color in her cheeks faded, but she walked into
the car determinedly, and taking one of its swinging chairs looked
steadily through the glass front. The seats filled, the door was
closed, and the scarcely perceptible motion began.
The roof of the next car began to swing into view. The
inexorableness of the journey began to impress itself upon Mildred's
mind. She was trying to turn away from the thought, when a well-
known voice set her beating heart to throbbing faster.
"Why, this is fortunate," it said, with studied carelessness.
She started and lifted her eager eyes. There was Jack Van
Tassel looking down upon her, triumphant, but as usual uncertain of
his reception.
It has been said before that Mr. Van Tassel was a good-looking
young man; but the radiance which seemed to Mildred now to invest
every feature of his face, and each dark hair of his head, was
certainly the figment of an excited imagination.
"Why, Jack," she gasped, and clasped her hands tightly in her
lap for fear they might tell too much.
"You are pale," he said, and stooped with tender concern.
"Why—the sun was pretty warm, didn't you think?" she
returned.
Jack did think so. He had had considerable time in which to test
it, dodging from one side of the Plaisance to the other in that crowd,
where every one knows that his best friend had a faculty of
dissolving from view even when he was supposed to be safely at
one's side.
 "Our poor heliotrope!" he said, glancing down at their
decorations.
Mildred followed his gaze. The sprays on her jacket looked, she
thought, much as she felt five minutes ago. "Let us throw them
away," she answered, starting to withdraw the pin.
"Never," said Jack promptly, and the girl hesitated, then dropped
her hand.
"Turn this way," he added. "See the University buildings,—a fine
massive gray city that is going to be! Doesn't it seem strange to
think that college will ever be venerable and have traditions?"
From this time their attention was fully occupied with the
panoramic view. The crowd of sightseers in the Plaisance became a
congregation of umbrellas and parasols, ever lessening in size, and
whitened in patches where a number of faces were upturned at once
to behold the gyration of the wheel. The strange colors and shapes
in architecture brought from many lands stood in startling
conjunction on either hand. Beyond stretched the Fair city with its
winding waterways, held safe in the great azure crescent of Lake
Michigan's embrace.
Mildred's eyes sparkled with interest and pleasure. The color
had returned to her face, and her spirits to their natural level. When
their car again neared earth she was glad, not sorry, that another
circuit was in prospect to help her to a more satisfactory view of
what had seemed but a tantalizing glimpse.
"The deed is done," said Jack, as at last the exit door of the car
was opened, and the passengers passed from under the gigantic
steel web and set foot on solid earth once more. "What is next on
your programme?"
 "I was going home," answered Mildred, rather hesitatingly.
"World's Fair finished?" asked Jack with a smile.
"I have seen almost everything in the Plaisance that I care for."
"But I haven't."
"What do you mean? Are you hinting?"
The girl smiled too, and somehow her expression was not so
exasperating as at other times.
"Yes, I am hinting."
"Out with it, then. Speak up like a little man."
"Sometimes when I have spoken up like a little man you have
made me feel like a little donkey."
"I don't see how you can like me at all, Jack," returned Mildred
naïvely. "I made up my mind this morning that I was going to try to
be more like Clover."
"Capital scheme!" exclaimed Van Tassel, with so much
enthusiasm that Mildred felt disconcerted.
"I don't suppose the leopard can change his spots, though," she
returned, rather stiffly.
"Let us go to Hagenbeck's and see," suggested Jack.
"It is rather far from here if we are going to do the shows with
any system."
"Do you wish to, Mildred? Don't let me bore you."
"It only bores me to have you want me to be like somebody
else."
Jack's lips drew together in an inaudible whistle, and it needed
all Clover's warnings to aid him in holding the rein over himself. They
were aimlessly walking east.
 "But I honestly don't blame you," she added. "I have done
nothing to make it pleasant for you here. In your own home it didn't
seem necessary to treat you like a guest."
"You are right. There was no necessity in the matter; there isn't
now. Perhaps you really wish to go home."
"Clover wouldn't go if she did wish it," Mildred smiled at him
with a sidelong glance, "and so I will stay."
"Not with me," said Jack, lifting his hat and looking very firm as
he paused in the road.
"Then you take it back that you wish me to be like little sister?"
Mildred also paused, still smiling at him with her chin lifted.
"I want you to be honest."
"I am honest. I want to stay, you uncivil man."
 CHAPTER XX.
THE MIDWAY PLAISANCE.

The magic carpet in the Arabian Nights which transported its owner
from one country to another, remote, in the space of a few seconds,
was the property of all visitors to the Midway Plaisance. Mildred and
Jack spent a little time amid the Swiss Alps, the former amusing
herself by picking out for Jack's benefit localities where she and
Clover had traveled. Then they looked in at the Bedouin
Encampment and saw an old woman making bread. She whirled the
dough on one hand until it spread into a very thin sheet. This she
flapped over a cushion and from thence transferred it to the top of
an inverted iron basin, where it baked above burning sticks. It
looked when cooked like a delicate cracker, as it was broken up and
passed around to the spectators.
A gigantic black, clothed entirely in red from his high leather
boots to the rope-like twists of cloth about his head, lay stretched on
a divan beside another fire smoking a narghileh.
"The bread is coming this way," remarked Mildred
apprehensively. "Let us go into that door and see what is there."
Jack followed her. "This room, Miss Bryant, is taken from a
Damascus palace," he said. "I am surprised that you didn't recognize
it at once. Observe these pieces of silver set into the walls, and the
lavish number of mirrors. I believe a periodical lecturer appears in
here."
 "How much nicer to have it to ourselves, and guess about it. I
have been standing so long, I can guess very closely what these
gold-embroidered velvet divans are for," and Mildred stepped up on
the dais at the end of the room and seated herself.
The ceiling was lofty, and in the centre of the room a fountain
played. Beyond it was another dais surrounded by divans. The floors
were covered with rugs. Outside, two Bedouins fenced with curious
swords, the handles wrapped with twine, waving their small brass
shields meanwhile with ostentatious gestures as they deliberately
stepped about. Increasing in concentration and swift fury to the
climax of the play, they paused unexpectedly, and seating
themselves on the ground, fell to rolling cigarettes and making
coffee over the small fire beside which lay the immobile black.
Shrill and dull arose the rhythm of the flageolets and the
tambours. The click of castanets told that the dark-eyed women
were dancing.
While Mildred and Jack still rested, an Arab in loose robes came
in, and going to the fountain bathed his face and hands and dried
them on a purple silk towel striped with yellow.
"How nice of him," said Mildred, acknowledging this touch
added to the picture.
As they were passing out, one of the Bedouins, the cloth from
his twisted turban hanging about his shoulders, paused near them
with a baby in his arms, a curly-headed tot of a year old, around
whose big brown eyes were drawn lines of artificial black. Mildred
looked gently upon the child, and the father, smiling with pride and
pleasure, glanced from one to the other; so she patted the baby.