bove her ears. She had
her mother's beautiful pearl earrings, that had come from France with
the old French grandmother, and a handsome mother-of-pearl-topped comb
in her hair.

They put on the ball-dress. "Now look at yourself," said Miss Cynthia,
"and get used to it before I let in the folks."

Hanny stood before her mother's tall mirror. Oh, this was Miss Nan
Underhill, and she had never seen her before. There was a mystery about
her,--a sudden sense of a strange, beautiful, unseen world, a new
country she was going into, an old world left behind, an intangible
recreation that no words could explain, but that touched her with a
kind of exalted sacredness, as if a new life was unfolding all about
her. She hardly dared stir or breathe.

"For a girl with no special beauty, I think you look very well. But,
land sakes! You'll see no end of handsome girls; Margaret and Jim
carried off the beauty of this family."

Miss Cynthia's voice recalled her from the vision of coming womanhood,
that she was to live over again on her wedding night, with its holy
blessedness enshrining her within her bridal veil.

Her father's eyes shone with a softness that looked like tears. Her
mother viewed her all over with a critical air.

"I must say, Cynthia, you've done wonderfully. The dress looks very
nice. And now, Hanny, I do hope you won't be forward or silly. Mind
everything Mrs. Jasper says, and don't you and Daisy giggle. Be careful
and don't lose Margaret's handkerchief. I don't just know as you ought
to carry that."

Joe said she was lovely; and Jim really was very complimentary. He _did_
wish that he was going. But Jim counted the cost of everything now, for
he was trying to get out of debt.

The coach came up from the Jaspers' and Hanny was put inside. Joe
insisted on sharing the box with the driver.

When Daisy took off her wrap in the dressing-room, she had on a pale
pink silk. Part of her curls were tied up in a bunch on top of her head,
and fastened with a silver arrow and two roses. She would always wear it
in ringlets, or at least until she was so old she wouldn't mind about
her shoulders being not quite straight.

The affair was a banquet primarily. To be sure they gathered in the
Assembly room; and there was Ben, and Delia, who looked very nice and
bright in maize colour and brown.

"Oh, Hanny, you are as lovely as a picture," she whispered
enthusiastically. "But you _are_ a little mite; there is no denying it.