than to go
first in the wedding march, and hold the bride's bouquet. I shouldn't
think you'd let a little thing like that stand in the way of your
finding out what you're so crazy to know."

"_Wouldn't_ you?" asked Lloyd, with a slight shrug, and in a tone which
Dora described afterward to Cornie as simply withering.

"'Well, that's the difference, as you see,
Betwixt my lord the king and _me_!'"

To Grace's wonder, she dropped the sample of pink chiffon in Betty's
lap, as if it had lost all interest for her, and stood up.

"Come on, girls," she exclaimed. "Let's take the rest of those pictuahs.
There are two moah films left in the roll."

"I might as well go with you," said Betty, gathering up the loose leaves
that had fallen from her note-book. "It's no use trying to write with my
head so full of the grand secret. I couldn't possibly think of anything
else."

Arm in arm with Allison, she sauntered up the steps behind the others to
the old garden, which was the pride of every pupil in Warwick Hall. The
hollyhocks from Ann Hathaway's cottage had not yet begun to flaunt their
rosettes of color, but the rhododendrons from Killarney were in gorgeous
bloom. As Lloyd focussed the camera in such a way as to make them a
background for a picture of the sun-dial, Betty heard Kitty ask: "You'll
let us know early in the morning what your present is, won't you,
Princess?"

"Yes, I'll run into yoah room with it early in the mawning, just as soon
as I lay eyes on it myself," promised Lloyd, solemnly.

"She can't!" whispered Betty to Allison, with a giggle. "In the first
place, it's something that can't be carried, and in the second place it
will take a month for her to see all of it herself."

Allison stopped short in the path, her face a picture of baffled
curiosity. "Betty Lewis," she said, solemnly, "I could find it in my
heart to choke you. Don't tempt me too far, or I'll do it with a good
grace."

Betty laughed and pushed aside the vines at the entrance to the arbor.
"Come in here," she said, in a low tone. "I've intended all along to
tell you as soon as we got away from Grace Campman and those freshmen,
for it concerns you and Kitty, too. You missed the first house-party we
had at The Locusts, but you'll have a big share in the second one. For a
June house-party with a wedding in it is the 'surprise' godmother has
written about in Lloyd's birthday letter."

CHAPTER II.

AT WARE'S WIG