fectly safe!"

"I dare say they would; but Miss Drummond is nervous, and she won't let
us, so that's an end of it!"

"Miss Drummond is most absurdly tiresome and fussy!" thought Aldred,
when the string had been arranged, and the row of beautiful lanterns was
swinging overhead. "There couldn't possibly be any danger when they're
hanging so high; we wouldn't stick our heads into them!"

She was alone in the room, for the other girls had gone into the pantry
to dress. She could hear from their suppressed giggles that they found
the robing nearly the most amusing part of the performance. Her own
costume would not take long to put on, so she was not at all in a hurry,
and had lingered behind to add a few finishing touches to the scenery.

"Every one of them has a candle," she continued to herself. "I suppose
Phoebe's sister made them quite ready; she evidently expected them to
be lighted. It would be such a gorgeous illumination! I declare I'll try
it, to see how it looks."

With the aid of a chair, she managed to set all the candles burning, and
stood back against the curtain to admire the effect.

"It's perfectly lovely," she exclaimed; "like a real fairy tale palace!
I never saw anything prettier--not even at the pantomime. Oh, I must
leave them as they are! Perhaps Miss Drummond does not really mind, only
she feels bound to give tiresome orders. What an astonishment it will be
for the others, when they come back! Now I must fly!"

It was within twenty minutes of the opening of the entertainment,
therefore high time for Aldred to dress. She scrambled into her long
dressing-gown, and put on her turban without much enthusiasm; her part
was so small that she knew she would attract little attention, and
probably not receive even a clap. Mabel was already arrayed in the
pretty, gauzy robes that her mother had sent, and made a charming Sister
Anne, though her blue eyes, carnation cheeks, and red-gold hair were
hardly of Eastern appearance.

"You might, of course, be a Circassian; they're often very fair," said
Aldred. "You look far nicer than Fatima. If you're ready, let us go and
take a last peep at the stage."

Aldred expected to give her friend a great surprise when she opened the
door, but she was not prepared for the scene that greeted them as they
entered the room. The lanterns, the beautiful Chinese lanterns, instead
of hanging proudly on their string, and shedding a brilliant lustre over
the scene, were lying