y still held. Seeing that
it was only a snake, something which Mary and Holland were always
dragging home, to add to their collection of skins and shells, she went
on:

"The Little Colonel is to have a second house-party. The same girls that
were at the first one are invited for the month of June, and Eugenia is
to be married there instead of in New York. Think what a wedding it will
be, in that beautiful old Southern home! A thousand times nicer than it
would have been in New York."

She stopped to enjoy the effect her news had produced. Mary's face was
glowing with unselfish pleasure in her sister's good fortune.

"And we're to wear pale pink chiffon dresses, just the color of wild
roses. Eugenia got the material in Paris when she ordered her
wedding-gown, and they're to be made in Louisville after we get there."

The light in Mary's face was deepening.

"And Phil Tremont is to be there the entire month of June. He is to be
best man, you know, since Eugenia is to marry his brother."

"Oh, Joyce!" gasped Mary. "What a heavenly time you are going to have!
Just The Locusts by itself would be good enough, but to be there at a
house-party, and have Phil there and to see a wedding! I've always
wanted to go to a wedding. I never saw one in my life."

"Tell her the rest, daughter," prompted Mrs. Ware, gently. "Don't keep
her in the dark any longer."

"Well, then," said Joyce, smiling broadly. "Let me break it to you by
degrees, so the shock won't give you apoplexy or heart-failure. The rest
of it is, that _you_--Mary Ware, are invited also. _You_ are invited to
go with me to the house-party at The Locusts! And _you'll_ see the
wedding, for Mr. Sherman is going to send tickets for both of us, and
mamma and I have made all the plans. Now that she is so well, she won't
need either of us while she's up at the camp with Jack, and the money
it would have taken to pay your board will buy the new clothes you
need."

All the color faded out of the hot little face as Mary listened, growing
pale with excitement.

"Oh, mamma, is it _true_?" she asked, imploringly. "I don't see how it
can be. But Joyce wouldn't fool me about anything as big as this, would
she?"

She asked the question in such a quiver of eagerness that the tears
sprang to her eyes. Joyce had expected her to spin around on her toes
and squeal one delighted little squeal after another, as she usually did
when particularly happy. She did not know what to expect