nd have her actually _go_
to the party. What _do_ you suppose Marian would say to her when she
walked in?"

"She wouldn't _say_ anything, but she'd _look_ so astonished, and she'd
be so stiff that Miss Angela would very soon find out she wasn't very
welcome. But we can't keep back the note very well, even if we could get
hold of it,--it might get us into trouble, for it would be against the
law; but there's no law against an April Fool letter of our own, and
'twill be just as good fun in the end, for Marian Selwyn, of course,
will set Miss Angela right in double quick time after she receives her
note. Oh, I can just imagine the top-lofty style in which she will
inform Miss Angela that there must be some mistake."

"And then, of course, they'll both find out that somebody's been
April-fooling them."

"Of course. But that isn't going to interfere with our fun. Miss Angela
will be set down by that time just where I want her, when she discovers
that her invitation is nothing but an April fool on her. I wish--But,
hush, somebody's coming this way;" and in an instant Nelly had whisked
into her pocket the note she had written, and the cousins were walking
down the room, talking in a loud tone about their lessons. The "somebody
coming" was a very quiet but a very observing girl, who, as she saw the
sudden start of Lizzy and Nelly, also caught sight of the little white
missive as it was whisked into Nelly's pocket, and immediately
thought,--

"There's some mischief going on. I wonder what it is."

"That sly Mary Marcy, she's always spying 'round," whispered Nelly to
her companion, as they passed along. Then in a high voice, thinking to
mislead Mary, she cried, "Oh, Lizzy, now I've shown you _my_ composition
you must show me yours."

Mary Marcy was a shrewd girl as well as an observant one, and she
laughed in her sleeve as she heard this.

"Composition! that was no school composition", she said to herself; and
when a few minutes later the bell rang for the close of recess, and she
saw Nelly send a significant glance to Lizzy as the two hurried to their
seats, this shrewd, observant Mary was surer than ever that there was
mischief going on, and when she went home that afternoon she told her
mother what she had seen and heard, and how she felt about it,--for Mary
was very confidential with her mother, and told her most of her school
secrets. Mrs. Marcy listened to this telling with that placid Quaker way
of hers, and remar