state of war
existed between them.

"What under the sun are you looking at?" Janet went on impatiently.
"You give me the fidgets."

"Oh, read your book," Phyllis said without turning. "I'm only star
gazing."

"Read? How under the sun can I, with Galahad and Boru making faces at
each other under my very nose. Come and take your cat, or I will dump
him on the floor; he's making Boru miserably jealous."

Phyllis sighed and turned reluctantly from the window.

"Poor old kittens, didn't his Aunt Jan love him? Well, it was too bad!
Come to his own mistress." She picked up the cat and held him in her
arms. Galahad purred contentedly and rubbed his silky ear against her
soft cheek.

Unconsciously Phyllis returned to the window. There was a light in the
window of the house across the yard. It was the same window where only
a few days ago the caretaker had fitted the wire screen with so much
care. To-night the shade was down, but a shadow passed and repassed,
looming large and mysterious behind it.

"What under the sun is he doing in that room?" Phyllis pondered,
encouraging the mysterious reasons that fitted through her head and
enlarging upon them.

A prodigious sigh from Janet interrupted the most thrilling story of
all, and she gave up and returned to her place on the sofa.

"Do you realize that just forty-eight hours ago we were having the time
of our lives?" Janet demanded.

"It seems years ago to me," Phyllis replied. "What fun it was! I
don't think I ever had a better time at any party I ever went to."

"Well, I never went to any other party,"--Janet laughed--"unless you'd
call the church fair at Old Chester a party, and I don't. I call it a
nightmare." She made a wry face as memories assailed her.

"How about the tea party we gave at grandmother's?" Phyllis inquired.
"We had fun at that, wearing each other's dresses, do you remember?"

"Of course, but I wouldn't call it a party,"--Janet frowned, trying to
think of a better word. "I think it was an experience," she said at
last.

Phyllis laughed. "What makes you say that?" she asked.

"Well, if you had heard the things those girls said about _me_ to _me_,
thinking I was you, why, you'd understand," Janet said, and she smiled
a little wistfully.

"Jan," Phyllis asked suddenly, "tell me something honestly and truly.
Do you ever miss Old Chester?"

Janet thought for a minute and then shook her head.

"No, I honestly don't," she said slo