tly.

Something went over Anne which might be described as a thrill, but it
was hardly a pleasant one. She had never met any of Roy's family; she
realized the significance of his statement; and it had, somehow, an
irrevocableness about it that chilled her.

"I shall be glad to see them," she said flatly; and then wondered if she
really would be glad. She ought to be, of course. But would it not be
something of an ordeal? Gossip had filtered to Anne regarding the light
in which the Gardners viewed the "infatuation" of son and brother. Roy
must have brought pressure to bear in the matter of this call. Anne
knew she would be weighed in the balance. From the fact that they had
consented to call she understood that, willingly or unwillingly, they
regarded her as a possible member of their clan.

"I shall just be myself. I shall not TRY to make a good impression,"
thought Anne loftily. But she was wondering what dress she would better
wear Saturday afternoon, and if the new style of high hair-dressing
would suit her better than the old; and the walking party was rather
spoiled for her. By night she had decided that she would wear her brown
chiffon on Saturday, but would do her hair low.

Friday afternoon none of the girls had classes at Redmond. Stella took
the opportunity to write a paper for the Philomathic Society, and was
sitting at the table in the corner of the living-room with an untidy
litter of notes and manuscript on the floor around her. Stella always
vowed she never could write anything unless she threw each sheet down as
she completed it. Anne, in her flannel blouse and serge skirt, with her
hair rather blown from her windy walk home, was sitting squarely in the
middle of the floor, teasing the Sarah-cat with a wishbone. Joseph and
Rusty were both curled up in her lap. A warm plummy odor filled the
whole house, for Priscilla was cooking in the kitchen. Presently she
came in, enshrouded in a huge work-apron, with a smudge of flour on her
nose, to show Aunt Jamesina the chocolate cake she had just iced.

At this auspicious moment the knocker sounded. Nobody paid any attention
to it save Phil, who sprang up and opened it, expecting a boy with the
hat she had bought that morning. On the doorstep stood Mrs. Gardner and
her daughters.

Anne scrambled to her feet somehow, emptying two indignant cats out of
her lap as she did so, and mechanically shifting her wishbone from her
right hand to her left. Priscilla, who