teria blossoms mean tears?"

"I don't believe in all those old women's superstitions, miss," declared
Katy, stoutly. "I imagine that it was got up by some muddy-complexioned
creature, whose only annoyance was that the pretty blossoms didn't look
good on her, and consequently she gave them a bad name to keep others
from wearing them. There's plenty of such things being done."

This explanation, or rather explosion of the pet superstition, amused
Dorothy vastly.

"Well, I shall not mind the old adage about wisteria blossoms and tears.
I'll wear the dress anyhow, Katy, come what may. But do you know what
Iris is going to wear? I haven't been able to find out."

"Nor has any one, ma'am," muttered Katy. "She has been making up her
ball dress in her own room for the past fortnight, and keeps the door
securely fastened; but we shall see very soon now, for it is quite time
to dress, and she has to be ready first to receive the guests. I heard
Mr. Kendal telling her so, a few moments since, as they passed through
the corridor just as I opened the door."

She saw Dorothy turn a shade paler, and her head drooped, but she made
no reply.

"Shall I commence now to arrange your toilet?" she asked, anxious to
dress her mistress, and then don her own new dress for the gala
occasion.

"I don't want to go into the ball-room until all the guests have
arrived, and then I want to slip in quietly," said Dorothy; "so you need
not hurry."

It was a sorry task at best for Katy, dressing her poor, blind mistress
for the ball.

Ah! it was pitiful to see her sitting so patiently there with her back
to the mirror, while the maid, with great tears rolling down her cheeks,
fastened the clouds of tulle here and there with the dark blossoms, and
twined them in the golden curls that fell about her white neck.

Oh, how radiantly fair she looked! And Katy knew that no one gazing in
those beautiful violet eyes would ever realize that the lovely girl was
blind--stone blind.

Her hand trembled violently as, an hour later, she clung to her maid's
arm, and timidly, shrinkingly entered the great ball-room crowded with
guests. No one noticed their entrance, the throng was so great, and she
had her heart's desire. She slipped into a corner without her presence
being commented on.

She did not know that a little place among a bower of ferns had been
previously arranged for her by Katy, where she could sit and hear the
music without being seen hersel