o
Lee, to make a show for the girls.

"The next question is," said Mrs. Pendleton, after the trunks were
unpacked, and the pretty clothes hung up in the various closets, "which
one of you two will Mr. Gardiner prefer?"

"Me!" said jolly Sally, with a mischievous laugh, complacently gazing at
the lovely face reflected in the mirror.

"It might be as well to wait until after he is introduced to us before
you answer that question," said Lou. "But how are we to meet him?"

"Your father will attend to that part of the business," said Mrs.
Pendleton. "He understands what he has to do, and will find a way to
accomplish it. Having marriageable daughters always sharpens a man's
wits. Your father will find some way to get in with young Mr. Gardiner,
depend upon that."

It required three weeks for Mr. Pendleton to secure an introduction to
the young man. On the following day the two sisters, dressed in their
best, and hanging on their father's arms, paraded up and down the
village streets until they espied the object of their search.
Introductions naturally followed; but, much to the chagrin of the girls,
their father, after chatting for a moment with handsome Mr. Gardiner,
dragged them along.

"I did not have a chance to say one word to him," said Lou,
disappointedly.

"Nor I," said Sally, poutingly.

"Don't make a dead set for a man the first time you see him,"
recommended Mr. Pendleton, grimly. "Take matters easy."

The proudest moment of their lives was when Jay Gardiner called upon
them at their hotel one afternoon. The girls were squabbling up in their
room when his card was handed them.

"Did he say which one of us he wishes to see?" cried Lou, breathlessly.

"The Misses Pendleton," replied the bell-boy.

There was a rush for their best clothes, and an exciting time for the
mother in getting the girls into them.

A moment later, two girls, both pretty as pictures, with their arms
lovingly twined about each other, glided into the parlor. Handsome Jay
turned from the window, thinking to himself that he had never beheld a
fairer picture.

There was half an hour's chat, and then he took his departure. He never
knew why he did it, but he invited them both to drive with him the next
day. Sally was about to answer "yes," delightedly, on the spot; but her
sister, remembering her father's warning, was more diplomatic.

"We will have to ask mamma if we can go," she said.

Mrs. Pendleton, who was passing through t