"Well, of all things! How did they hear of _me_?"

Eleanor half turned around and asked: "What's the matter?"

"Mother inclosed a letter that came from New York. She thought it might
be important, so she slipped it inside the one she was just going to
mail to me," murmured Anne, vaguely, studying the dense forest as they
drove past.

"Well, that's nothing to wonder about," said Eleanor.

Anne glanced at the letter again: "No, but the contents is."

"Maybe it's one of those proposals of marriage--you know; the kind where
a lonely bachelor, rich, well-bred, perfect in every respect (except his
bald head, glass eye, toothless gums, and palsy) wishes acquaintance
with sweet young miss--object matrimony!" Eleanor said, jokingly.

"Eleanor Maynard! How very unladylike of you!" cried her sister, shocked
at her levity.

"I'm only saying what you can read in the paper any day," argued
Eleanor, still laughing at her joke.

"This _is_ a proposal, but not that kind. It comes from a well-known
gentleman in New York City," said Anne.

Polly was so astonished that she pulled in the horses and suddenly
halted them without being aware of it. Eleanor and she turned square
about and gazed at Anne questioningly. Barbara couldn't say anything as
she was at sea for words.

"For goodness' sake!" exclaimed Eleanor, at last.

"Wh-y--I wanted to live with you in Denver this winter!" complained
Polly. Then remembering John and his evident preference for Anne, she
added severely: "Does John know about this man?"

Anne laughed gayly. "No, and that is the only thing that makes me feel
unhappy. I'd accept at once, if New York wasn't so far away, or if I had
never met John."

Although Anne spoke in a jocular tone when mentioning John, she blushed
most bewitchingly at her acknowledgment.

Eleanor had been keenly studying Anne's face, and now she exclaimed:
"Ha! you didn't tell us what _sort_ of a proposal! It may be a mason who
wants to hire you to carry a hod up the ladders."

As the very idea was so ridiculous, every one laughed, and that broke
the tension. Then Anne admitted: "I felt like squaring myself with you,
Nolla, for your hint that I was answering ads. in the _Matrimonial
Mirror_."

"Well, then, is it for a hod-carrier?" insisted the irrepressible
Eleanor.

"Almost as good; it is for a teacher to carry learning up into young
ladies' brains at a fashionable seminary in New York."

"What? never!" declared Barbara.

"