as she ran toward the door. "We came two whole days earlier than they
expected!"

Fidelia heard the joyful greeting, the chorus of surprised exclamations as
Lloyd flew first at Betty, then at Eugenia, with a hug and a kiss, then
turned to greet her Cousin Carl.

"Betty will never look at me again," Fidelia thought, with a throb of
jealousy, turning away from the sight of their happy meeting, and
beginning to strike soft aimless chords on the piano. "I wish I were one
of them," she whispered, with the tears springing to her eyes. "I hate to
be always on the edge of things, and never in them. We never stay in a
place long enough at a time to make any real friends or have any good
times."

Chattering and laughing, and asking eager questions, the girls hurried up
the stairs to Mrs. Sherman's room. Almost a year had gone by since Eugenia
and Lloyd had parted on the lantern decked lawn at Locust, the last night
of the house party. The year had made little difference in Lloyd, but
Eugenia had grown so tall that the change was startling.

"Really, you are taller than I," exclaimed Mrs. Sherman, in the midst of
an affectionate greeting, as she held her off for a better view.

"And doesn't she look stylish and young ladyfied, with her skirts down to
her ankles," added Lloyd. "You'd nevah think that she was only fifteen,
would you?"

"I had to have them made long," explained Eugenia, much flattered by
Lloyd's speech. It was her greatest wish to appear "grown up." "Papa says
that I am probably as tall now as I shall ever be, and really I'd look
ridiculous with my dresses any shorter."

Mrs. Sherman noticed presently, with a smile, that Eugenia seemed to have
gained dignity with her added height. There was something amusingly
patronising in her manner toward the younger girls. She answered Lloyd
several times with an "Oh, no, child" that was almost grandmotherly in its
tone.

"But here is somebody who has come back just as sweet and childlike as
ever," thought Mrs. Sherman, twisting one of Betty's brown curls around
her finger. Then she said aloud. "Was the trip as delightful as you
dreamed it would be, my little Tusitala?"

"Oh, _yes_, godmother," sighed Betty, blissfully. "It was a thousand times
better! And the best of it is my eyes are as well as ever. I needn't be
afraid, now, of that 'long night' that haunted me like a bad dream."

All during dinner Fidelia kept looking across at the merry party sitting
at the next