then, and they were
almost as cheap as now,--lawns, a light grey cashmere for ordinary
occasions, and a white India muslin for graduation. The very next
evening Dolly was to give her a party.

Grandmother thought it ought to be at home, instead.

"She will want one in the fall," said Dolly, "to announce that she is
really Miss Underhill, and ready for society. Home will be the place for
that. And she will be getting acquainted with young people through the
summer. She's never been anything but a little girl."

There wasn't such a fuss made about sweet girl graduates then; and,
later on, Rutgers Institute was to wheel into line and become a college;
but even now they had bouquets and baskets of flowers. And some of the
girls had lovers, and were engaged, even if there was no co-education.
The chapel was crowded with admiring friends; and the girls looked sweet
and pretty in their white gowns and flowing curls; for youth has a charm
and beauty of its own that does not depend on regular features, or
style, or any of the later accessories of life. It is an enchanted land
of sunny skies and heavenly atmospheres.

She came home out of it all with a curious new feeling. That night of
the banquet it had been almost a masquerade. Even now the blue shimmer
and clouds of white ruffles seemed to belong to some other state. She
wondered a little if she would ever wear it again.

There were some pretty gifts for her at home. Josie Dean and Charlie
Reed came around in the evening. He had passed his first year's
examinations successfully.

Doctor Joe and Jim and the elder people were talking very earnestly
about the duties and the purposes of life. Josie touched Hanny's hand,
and, with a little movement, the sign girls understand, drew her out on
the porch.

"Let us walk down the path. Oh, Hanny, I've something to tell you!" and
her voice was in a sort of delicious tremble. "May be you have
suspected. I told Charlie I _must_ confess it to you; though we do not
mean to say much about it at present. Oh, Hanny, can't you guess?"

There were so many things; it was something joyful, certainly. She
glanced up and smiled. Josie's face was all one roseate flush.

"Oh!" with a mysterious throb.

"We are engaged, dear. I don't know when we began to love each other. We
have been so much with each other, you know. He has helped me with my
lessons; and we have sung, and played, and read, and gone to church
together. It was like having a