arcels, the contents of which were displayed to an admiring audience in
the drawing-room, and then taken upstairs to Attica, which was
transformed into a dressmaker's work-room, barriers being for once
ignored in consideration of the importance of the occasion.

The five-pound notes became wonderfully elastic, and even after they
were expended little offerings came in from friends and members of the
family to swell the great sum total. One sent a pretty tie, another a
belt, a third a lace handkerchief. Trix supplied a most stylish
collection of pens, pencils, and indiarubbers, reposing in her very best
box; and Betty, not to be outdone, rummaged among her various
collections for a suitable offering. Eventually she discovered a half-
emptied bottle of eau-de-Cologne, which had been presented to her the
Christmas before, filled it up with water, and presented it to her
sisters for mutual use, unperturbed by the fact that the transparent hue
of the scent had changed to a milky white.

On the morning of the fifth day Ruth had a conviction that she was
sickening with a dire disease; on the sixth, she anticipated a disabling
accident; on the seventh, she waited hourly for a telegram from Uncle
Bernard, retracting his invitation; on the eighth, she wanted to know
what would happen if there was a cab strike in the city; and on the
ninth, talked vaguely of blizzards and earthquakes. Something it seemed
_must_ happen to prevent this long-dreamed-of journey; it did not seem
possible that the stars should run placidly in their courses, while Ruth
and Mollie Farrell were going a-visiting with a box full of fineries!

Yet the day did break, an ordinary, grey morning, with no sign to
distinguish it from another. Looking out of the window, men and women
could be seen going calmly about their duties. The postman and
newspaper-boy arrived at their accustomed time. No one outside the
household seemed to realise that the day was big with fate.

At eleven o'clock a cab drove up to the door; the boxes were piled on
the roof; and the heroines of the hour made their appearance in the
doorway, immaculately trim and tidy in travelling array. The brothers
and sisters were absent at school, so there was only the little mother
to say adieu, and stand waving her hand until the cab had disappeared
from view.

Once, she too had been young and fair, and life had stretched before her
like an empty page, on which the most marvellous happening