e?"

"She _was_," Maida said with emphasis.

Mrs. Lathrop did not ask any more questions. She went presently into
the back library. An old gentleman sat there, reading.

"That little girl who keeps the store at the corner is in there,
playing with Laura, father," she said. "I guess her grandmother was
a servant in 'Buffalo' Westabrook's family, for they traveled abroad
a year with the Westabrook family. Evidently, they give her all the
little Westabrook girl's clothes--she's dressed quite out of keeping
with her station in life. Curious how refinement rubs off--the child
has really a good deal of manner. I don't know that I quite like to
have Laura playing with her, though."

The two little girls returned after awhile to the playroom.

"How would you like to have me dance for you?" Laura asked abruptly.
"You know I take fancy dancing."

"Oh, Laura," Maida said delightedly "will you?"

"Of course I will," Laura said with her most beaming expression.
"You wait here while I go downstairs and get into my costume. Watch
that door, for I shall make my entrance there."

Maida waited what seemed a long time to her. Then suddenly Laura
came whirling into the room. She had put on a little frock of
pale-blue liberty silk that lay, skirt, bodice and tiny sleeves, in
many little pleats--"accordion-pleated," Laura afterwards described it.
Laura's neck and arms were bare. She wore blue silk stockings and
little blue-kid slippers, heelless and tied across the ankles with
ribbons. Her hair hung in a crimpy torrent to below her waist.

"Oh, Laura, how lovely you do look!" Maida said, "I think you're
perfectly beautiful!"

Laura smiled. Lifting both arms above her head, she floated about
the room, dancing on the very tips of her toes. Turning and smiling
over her shoulder, she bent and swayed and attitudinized. Maida
could have watched her forever.

In a few moments she disappeared again. This time she came back in a
red-silk frock with a little bolero jacket of black velvet, hung
with many tinkling coins. Whenever her fingers moved, a little
pretty clapping sound came from them--Maida discovered that she
carried tiny wooden clappers. Whenever her heels came together, a
pretty musical clink came from them--Maida discovered that on her
shoes were tiny metal plates.

Once again Laura went out. This time, she returned dressed like a
little sailor boy. She danced a gay little hornpipe.

"I never saw anything so marvelous in m