y; if you do, it shows that
you have not always had your own way. Elliott had never had anything
but her own way. That it had been in the main a sweet and likable way
did not change the fact. And how Stannard would gloat over her! He had
had to do the thing himself, but secretly she had looked down on him
for it, just as she had always despised girls who lamented their
obligation to go to places where they did not wish to go. There was
always, she had held, a way out, if you used your brains. Altogether,
it was a disconcerted, bewildered, and thoroughly put-out young lady
who, a week later, found herself taking the train for Highboro. The
world--her familiar, complacent, agreeable world--had lost its
equilibrium.

CHAPTER II

THE END OF A JOURNEY

Hours later, from a red-plush, Pullmanless train, Elliott Cameron
stepped down to three people--a tall, dark, surprisingly pretty
girl a little older than herself, a chunky girl of twelve, and a
middle-sized, freckle-faced boy. The boy took her bag and asked for
her trunk-checks quite as well as any of her other cousins could
have done and the tall girl kissed her and said how glad they were
to have the chance to know her.

"I am Laura," she said, "and here is Gertrude; and Henry will bring up
your trunks to-morrow, unless you need them to-night. Mother sent you
her love. Oh, we're so glad to have you come!"

Then it is to be feared that Elliott perjured herself. Her all-day
journey had not in the least reconciled her to the situation; if
anything, she was feeling more bewildered and put out than when she
started. But surprise and dismay had not routed her desire to please.
She smiled prettily as her glance swept the welcoming faces, and
kissed the girls and handed the boy two bits of pasteboard, and
said--Oh, Elliott!--how delighted she was to see them at last. You
would never have dreamed from Elliott's lips that she was not
overjoyed at the chance to come to Highboro and become acquainted with
cousins that she had never known.

But Laura, who was wiser than she looked, noticed that the new-comer's
eyes were not half so happy as her tongue. Poor dear, thought Laura,
how pretty she was and how daintily patrician and charming! But her
father was on his way to France! And though he went in civilian
capacity and wasn't in the least likely to get hurt, when they were
seated in the car Laura leaned over and kissed her new cousin again,
with the recollection warm o