I am going to do it some day soon, lift you up
bodily and put you into a story that I have begun to write. It will be
my best work, because it is what I have lived."

"You'd better live awhile longer," laughed Mrs. Sherman, "before you
begin to settle what your best work will be. Think how the shy little
Elizabeth of twelve has blossomed into the stately Elizabeth of
eighteen, and think what possibilities are still ahead of you in the
next six years."

"When mothah and Betty begin to compliment each othah," remarked Lloyd,
seating herself on the arm of the old Colonel's chair, "they are lost to
all else in the world. So while we have this moment to ou'selves, my
deah grandfathah, I want to impress something on yoah mind, very
forcibly."

The playful way in which she held him by the ears was a familiarity no
one but Lloyd had ever dared take with the dignified old Colonel. She
emphasized each sentence with a gentle pull and pinch.

"Maybe you wouldn't believe it, but this little Mary Ware who is coming,
has a most exalted opinion of me. From what Joyce says she thinks I am
perfect, and I don't want her disillusioned. It's so nice to have
somebody look up to you that way, so I want to impress it on you that
you're not to indulge in any reminiscence of my past while she is heah.
You mustn't tell any of my youthful misdemeanahs that you are fond of
telling--how I threw mud on yoah coat, in one of my awful tempahs, and
smashed yoah shaving-mug with a walking-stick, and locked Walkah down in
the coal cellah when he wouldn't do what I wanted him to. You must 'let
the dead past bury its dead, and act--act in the living present,' so
that she'll think that _you_ think that I'm the piece of perfection she
imagines me to be."

"I'll be a party to no such deception," answered the old Colonel,
sternly, although his eyes, smiling fondly on her, plainly spoke
consent. "You know you're the worst spoiled child in Oldham County."

"Whose fault is it?" retorted Lloyd, with a final pinch as she liberated
his ears and darted away. "Ask Colonel George Lloyd. If there was any
spoiling done, he did it."

Two hours later, still in the gayest of spirits, Lloyd and Betty raced
down the avenue to meet their guests, and tired and travel-stained as
the newcomers were, the impetuous greeting gave them a sense of having
been caught up into a gay whirl of some kind. It gave them an excited
thrill which presaged all sorts of delightful things ab