ever of joyful
excitement next day. Uncle Laurie enjoyed the episode very much,
and Aunt Amy looked out her most becoming white dress for the grand
occasion; Bess lent her most artistic hat, and Josie ranged the wood
and marsh for a bouquet of wild roses, sweet white azalea, ferns, and
graceful grasses, as the offering of a very grateful heart.

At ten she solemnly arrayed herself, and then sat looking at her neat
gloves and buckled shoes till it was time to go, growing pale and sober
with the thought that her fate was soon to be decided; for, like all
young people she was sure that her whole life could be settled by one
human creature, quite forgetting how wonderfully Providence trains us
by disappointment, surprises us with unexpected success, and turns our
seeming trials into blessings.

'I will go alone: we shall be freer so. Oh, Bess, pray that she may tell
me rightly! So much depends on that! Don't laugh, uncle! It is a very
serious moment for me. Miss Cameron knows that, and will tell you so.
Kiss me, Aunt Amy, since mamma isn't here. If you say I look nice, I'm
quite satisfied. Good-bye.' And with a wave of the hand as much like her
model's as she could make it, Josie departed, looking very pretty and
feeling very tragical.

Sure now of admittance, she boldly rang at the door which excluded so
many, and being ushered into a shady parlour, feasted her eyes upon
several fine portraits of great actors while she waited. She had read
about most of them, and knew their trials and triumphs so well that she
soon forgot herself, and tried to imitate Mrs Siddons as Lady Macbeth,
looking up at the engraving as she held her nosegay like the candle in
the sleep-walking scene, and knit her youthful brows distressfully while
murmuring the speech of the haunted queen. So busy was she that Miss
Cameron watched her for several minutes unseen, then startled her by
suddenly sweeping in with the words upon her lips, the look upon her
face, which made that one of her greatest scenes.

'I never can do it like that; but I'll keep trying, if you say I may,'
cried Josie, forgetting her manners in the intense interest of the
moment.

'Show me what you can do,' answered the actress, wisely plunging into
the middle of things at once, well knowing that no common chat would
satisfy this very earnest little person.

'First let me give you these. I thought you'd like wild things better
than hot-house flowers; and I loved to bring them, a