t--and then if something nice turns up, why, wouldn't that be
ten times better than if, when we had been counting on the best, the
worst should happen?"

"You see, dears," Mrs. Prescott had entirely missed the point of
Nancy's last remark, "Uncle Thomas is very old, and I am sure--I am
_quite_ sure that he will relent."

"Oh, Mother!" Poor Nancy flung up both hands in despair.

"I have entered you both at Miss Leland's, so, really, there is no use
in arguing about it any more. And I've already sent the check for the
first term. Everything is decided. I didn't tell you until to-night,
just because I was afraid that this hard-headed old Nancy of mine would
try to argue me out of it; when I _know_ that it's the best and wisest
thing to do. Nancy, darling, please don't scowl like that. You aren't
angry with Mother, are you?" A soft little hand was laid on Nancy's
muscular brown one, and in spite of herself the girl relented, with a
whimsical smile and a sigh.

"I'd like to see anyone who could be angry with you for two minutes,"
she said, burrowing her brown head in the lace on her mother's shoulder.

"That nasty old Uncle Thomas has been angry with me for ten years, very
nearly. Isn't he a dreadful old man?" laughed Mrs. Prescott, tweaking
Nancy's ear.

"We'll have to get a lot of new clothes if we are going to boarding
school." Alma, having spread the towel on the floor, reclined full
length in front of the fire, and meditated with satisfaction on the
delightful prospect.

"Mamma, if I could just once have a hat with a feather on it--a genuine
_plume_, I'd be happy for the rest of my days."

"Wouldn't Alma be lovely?" cried Mrs. Prescott delightedly. "Oh, you
don't know how I long to give my daughters everything--everything. One
thing you must have, Alma, is a black velvet dress--made very simply,
of course. They are so serviceable," she flung this sop to Nancy, who,
with her head thrown back, was good-humoredly tracing phantom figures
in the air with her forefinger.

"In for a penny, in for a pound," she observed, agreeably. "Oh,
darling Uncle Thomas, kindly lend us a million. We need it, oh, we
need it--every hour we need it!"

"Let's set one day aside for shopping," was Alma's bright suggestion;
she felt that this would be her element. "We'll go into the city in
the morning, get everything done by noon, lunch at Mailliard's and then
go to a matinee. I haven't seen a play since Papa took us t