him, or something of the sort, I
don't know exactly what. And she knew, if Lloyd had a chance to
monopolize him in that beautiful tableau, what it would lead to. It
wouldn't be the first time that Lloyd had quietly stepped in and taken
possession of her particular friends. She made such a fuss about it,
that Allison finally said she'd change, and make Malcolm take the part
of boatman, and give Alex the part they had intended for Malcolm, even
if they didn't fit as well."

"The hateful thing!" sputtered Mary, indignantly. "I don't see how she
can insinuate such mean things about any one as sweet and beautiful as
Lloyd is."

"I don't either," agreed Elise, "but Allison says it is true that
everybody who has ever started out as a special friend of Bernice, men I
mean, have ended by thinking the most of Lloyd. But everybody knows that
it is simply because she is more attractive than Bernice. As Ranald says
Lloyd isn't a girl to fish for attention, and that Bernice would have
more if she didn't show the fellows that she was after them with a hook.
Don't you tell Lloyd I told you all this," warned Elise.

"Oh, I wouldn't think of doing such a thing!" cried Mary. "It would hurt
her dreadfully to know that anybody talked so mean about her. I wouldn't
be the one to repeat it, for worlds!"

Left to hold the pony while Elise went in at Mrs. Bisbee's, Mary sat
thinking of the snake she had discovered in her Eden. It was a rude
shock to find that every one did not admire and love the "Queen of
Hearts," who to her was without fault or flaw. All the rest of that day
and evening, she could not look in Bernice Howe's direction, without a
savage desire to scratch her. Once, when she heard her address Lloyd as
"dearie," she could hardly keep from crying out, "Oh, you sly, two-faced
creature!"

Lloyd and her guests arrived on the scene while Mary was away in the
pony-cart on another borrowing expedition. All of the tableaux, except
two, were simple in setting, requiring only the costumes that could be
furnished by the chests of the neighborhood attics. But those two kept
everybody busy all morning long. One was the reproduction of a famous
painting called June, in which seven garlanded maidens in Greek costumes
posed in a bewitching rose bower. Quantities of roses were needed for
the background, great masses of them that would not fade and droop; and
since previous experience had proved that artificial flowers may be used
with fine s