an acumen beyond her years, was the unsuccessful member
of a highly successful family. And now Elliott, adorable Elliott, was
to be marooned in this uncharted district for a whole year. It was
unthinkable!

"But, Elliott darling, you'd _die_ in Vermont!"

"Oh, no!" said Elliott; "I don't think I should find it pleasant, but
I shouldn't die."

"Pleasant!" sniffed Miss Royce. "I should say not."

"It _is_ rather far away from everybody. Think of not seeing you for a
year, Bess!"

"I don't want to think of it. What's the matter with your Uncle
James's house when the quarantine's lifted?"

"Nothing. But it has only just been put on."

"And the tournament next week. You _can't_ miss that! Oh, _Elliott_!"

"I think," remarked Elliott pensively, "there ought to be a home
opened for girls whose fathers are in France."

"Why," asked Bess, gripped by a great idea, "why shouldn't you come to
us while your uncle's house is quarantined?"

Why not, indeed? Elliott thought Bess a little slow in arriving at so
obvious and satisfactory a solution of the whole difficulty, but she
was properly reluctant about accepting in haste. "Wouldn't that be too
much trouble? Of course, it would be perfectly lovely for me, but what
would your mother say?"

"Mother will love to have you!" Miss Royce spoke with conviction.

They spent the rest of the afternoon making plans and Elizabeth went
home walking on air.

But Mother, alas! proved a stumbling-block. "That would be very nice,"
she said, "very nice indeed; but Elliott Cameron has plenty of
relatives. They will make some arrangement among them. I should hardly
feel at liberty to interfere with their plans."

"But her Aunt Elinor is going to France, and you know the James
Camerons' house is in quarantine. That leaves only the Vermont
Camerons--"

"Oh, yes. I remember, now, there was a third brother. They have their
plans, probably."

And that was absolutely all Bess could get her mother to say.

"But, Mother," she almost sobbed at last, "I--I _asked_ her!"

"Then I am afraid you will have to un-ask her," said Mrs. Royce. "We
really can't get another person into the house this summer, with your
Aunt Grace and her family coming in July."

Then it was that Elliott discovered the _impasse_. Try as she would,
she could find no way out, and she lost a good deal of sleep in the
attempt. To have to do something that she didn't wish to do was
intolerable. You may think this very sill