olata. The day was warm for autumn, and a gentle breeze played
among the leaves of the great trees bordering the lake, coming to the
girls in a soft, rustling whisper. The picture was almost too perfect to
be true.

"And she said," Billie murmured at last with a sigh of content, "that we
could have all the afternoon to become acquainted with Three Towers."

"Yes," said Laura, turning from the window, "but I guess she meant only
the inside of Three Towers. I don't believe they will allow us off the
grounds so soon."

At that moment the door opened and the pretty girl that had passed them
in the hall entered and shut the door softly behind her. In the bright
light of the room she seemed even prettier than she had in the hall, but
there was something about her--Billie could hardly have told what,
perhaps it was the expression of her mouth--that made Billie
instinctively dislike her.

The strange girl's eyes rested on Amanda and Eliza where they sat in
their corner, talking in whispers, and her lips curled disdainfully.
Then she came over to where Billie and her friends were standing.

"Hello!" she said with a quick smile. "You're the new girls, I suppose,
and we might as well get acquainted right away. My name is Rose Belser,
and I'm from Brighting," mentioning a town several miles the other side
of North Bend.

"We're awfully glad to know you," Billie answered, with her own
particular friendly smile. "I'm Beatrice Bradley, and these are my two
chums, Violet Farrington and Laura Jordon. We're from North Bend."

"Glad to know you," said Rose Belser with a quick little nod of her
black head. Then she curled herself on the foot of Billie's bed and
proceeded to make herself at home.

"I've been staying here for the summer," she told them. "It's an awful
place to spend the summer, you know. First time I ever did it, and I
never was so lonesome in my life."

"Why, I'd love to spend the summer here," said Vi, thinking of the
beautiful country they had glimpsed and the lovely lake where one might
row or canoe to his heart's content. "The country's so pretty, and you
have the lake----"

"Oh, the lake!" the girl interrupted impatiently. "And the country! I'm
tired to death of the lake and the country. I want to go to the city
where you can wear pretty clothes and go to parties and things."

"But I should think you could wear pretty clothes here," said Billie,
wondering. "And as to parties--I thought you always could hav