e you ever since I first knew you. But Granny said to
wait until you invited me. And I really have never seen Delia except
when Rosie's had her in the carriage. And then she's always been
asleep."

"You have to see Delia in the house to know what a naughty baby she
is," Dicky said. He spoke as if that were the finest tribute that he
could pay his little sister.

"Granny," Maida said that noon at lunch, "Laura Lathrop came here
and invited me to come to see her this afternoon and I just hate the
thought of going--I don't know why. Then Dicky came and invited me to
come and see him to-morrow afternoon and I just love the thought of
going. Isn't it strange?"

"Very," Granny said, smiling. "But you be sure to be a noice choild
this afternoon, no matter what that wan says to you."

Granny always referred to Laura as "that wan."

"Oh, yes, I'll be good, Granny. Isn't it funny," Maida went on. The
tone of her voice showed that she was thinking hard. "Laura makes me
mad--oh, just hopping mad,"--"hopping mad" was one of Rosie's
expressions--"and yet it seems to me I'd die before I'd let her know
it."

Laura was waiting for her on the piazza when Maida presented herself
at the Lathrop door. "Won't you come in and take your things off,
first?" she said. "I thought we'd play in the house for awhile."

She took Maida immediately upstairs to her bedroom--a large room all
furnished in blue--blue paper, blue bureau scarf covered with lace,
blue bed-spread covered with lace, a big, round, blue roller where
the pillows should be.

"How do you like my room, Maida?"

"It's very pretty."

"This is my toilet-set." Laura pointed to the glittering articles on
the bureau. "Papa's given them to me, one piece at a time. It's all
of silver and every thing has my initials on it. What is your set
of?"

Laura paused before she asked this last question and darted one of
her sideways looks at Maida. "She thinks I haven't any toilet-set
and she wants to make me say so," Maida thought. "Ivory," she said
aloud.

"Ivory! I shouldn't think that would be very pretty."

Laura opened her bureau drawers, one at a time, and showed Maida the
pretty clothes packed in neat piles there. She opened the large
closet and displayed elaborately-made frocks, suspended on hangers.
And all the time, with little sharp, sideways glances, she was
studying the effect on Maida. But Maida's face betrayed none of the
wonder and envy that Laura evidently expected