before she condemned Anne so harshly.

Twenty-four heads turned towards the window as Anne and Judy climbed
into the fascinating trap with the fawn cloth cushions, and twenty-four
pairs of lungs breathed sighs of envy, as Judy picked up the reins, and
the two little girls drove away together in the sunshine.

CHAPTER X

MISTRESS MARY

No one ever knew how Judy managed to get the Judge's consent, but on
Wednesday, when the children on their way home from school called at
the post-office for the mail, they found small square envelopes
addressed to themselves, and each envelope contained a card, and on the
card was written an invitation to every child to be present at a lawn
party to be given at Judge Jameson's on the following Saturday, from
one until five o'clock.

But this was not all. For during the evening, rumors, started by the
wily Launcelot, leaked out, that never in the history of Fairfax had
there been such a party as the one to be given by Judge Jameson in
honor of his grand-daughter, Judith, and her friend, Anne Batcheller.

"For it is as much Anne's party as Judy's," Launcelot stated, as one
having authority.

After the first jubilation, however, the young people looked at each
other with blank faces.

"It is the same afternoon as the school entertainment," wailed Amelia
Morrison.

"An' we've got to speak our pieces," said little Jimmie Jones.

But Nannie May cut the Gordian knot with her usual impetuosity.

"I am going to Judy's party," she declared, "and I am going to get
mother to write a note to Miss Mary."

Many were the notes that went to Miss Mary that day. All sorts of
excuses were given by the ambitious mothers, who would not have had
their offspring miss the opportunity of seeing the inside of the most
exclusive house in Fairfax for all the school entertainments in the
world!

And Miss Mary!

She had invited the school board and a half-dozen pedagogues from
neighboring districts. She had trained the children until they were
letter perfect. She had drilled them in their physical exercises until
they moved like machines, and now at the eleventh hour they were
fluttering away from her like a flock of unruly birds, and she
recognized at once that Judy had championed Anne's cause, and that in
her she had an adversary to be feared.

In vain she expostulated with the mothers.

"Saturday isn't a regular school-day, you know, Miss Mary," said Mrs.
Morrison, sitting down ponde