with Judy's grandmother over
it.

Judy came in, finally, rosy and breathless.

"Oh, invite your Miss Mary if you want to," she panted, as she kissed
the tear-streaked face. "But don't expect me to act too saint-like. I
am not made of the same stuff that you are, Anne."

"You are a brick," Launcelot pronounced later, when they were alone in
the dining-room superintending the putting up of the stage; "it was
harder for you to give up than for Anne."

"No, I'm not a brick." said Judy, a little wearily, "I am just hateful.
But I do try," and his praise meant much to her, and helped her
afterwards.

Miss Mary sat alone and discouraged when the note of invitation was
handed to her. She had sent letters to the school board and the other
teachers, pleading "unavoidable postponement," and now she was
correcting papers with an aching head.

"Dear Miss Mary,"--said Anne's little note,--"Please come to our party
to-day. It is going to be very nice, and we are sorry we set the same
day as the school entertainment, and we won't be happy if you are not
here. Please forgive us, and come. Your affectionate scholar, Anne."
And below the Judge had added, "I am anxious to supplement Anne's
invitation and apology and to say with her, 'Please forgive us and
come.'"

"I won't go," said Miss Mary at first, bitterly.

But when she had read the little letter again, she changed her mind.

"She is a dear child," she said.

And she washed her face and combed her hair, and put on her best white
dress and her new summer hat with the roses in it, and went out looking
young and pretty and with her headache forgotten.

And when she arrived at the Judge's she was escorted to a seat of honor
in the front row, with the Judge on one side, and the little
grandmother on the other, and with the astonished children smiling
welcomes to her as she went up the aisle.

CHAPTER XI

THE PRINCESS AND THE LILY MAID

As the children arrived they were shown at once into the great
dining-room, where at one end a stage had been erected and a curtain
hung, from behind which came the sounds of hammering and subdued
directions, given in Launcelot's voice.

"Amelia Morrison and Nannie May are in it," explained Tommy who had
yearned for an important part, but Judy had declared against him.

"You shouldn't have been asked at all," she said, witheringly, "if it
hadn't been that Anne begged that you might. You acted dreadfully the
other day. Ann