o it is rather premature to cry 'wolf' so
soon."

"It is very plain that you are outgrowing me," he returned. "Dolly
herself could not have made a more scathing remark."

But, fond as he was of tormenting her, he did not want to try her
too far, and so he endeavored to make friends. But his efforts at
reconciliation were not a success. She was not to be coaxed into her
sweet mood again; indeed she almost led him to fear that he had wounded
her irreparably by his jests. And yet, when he at last consulted his
watch, and went to the side-table for his hat and gloves, he turned
round to find her large eyes following him in a wistful sort of way.

"Are you going?" she asked him at length, a half-reluctant appeal in her
voice.

"I am due at Brabazon Lodge now," he answered.

She said no more after that, but relapsed into silence, and let him go
without making an effort to detain him, receiving his adieus in her most
indifferent style.

But she was cross and low-spirited when he was gone, and Aimee, coming
into the room with her work, found her somewhat hard to deal with, and
indeed was moved to tell her so.

"You are a most inexplicable girl, Mollie," she said. "What crotchet is
troubling you now?"

"No crotchet at all," she answered, and then all at once she got up and
stood before the mantel-glass, looking at herself fixedly. "Aimee," she
said, "if you were a man, would you admire me?"

Aimee gave her a glance, and then answered her with sharp frankness.
"Yes, I should," she said.

She remained standing for a few minutes, taking a survey of herself,
front view, side view, and even craning her pretty throat to get a
glimpse of her back; and then a pettish sigh burst from her, and she sat
down again at her sister's feet, clasping her hands about her knees in a
most unorthodox position.

"I should like to have a great deal of money," she said after a while,
and she frowned as she said it.

"That is a startling observation," commented Aimee, "and shows great
singularity of taste."

Mollie frowned again, and shrugged one shoulder, but otherwise gave the
remark small notice.

"I should like," she proceeded, "to have a carriage, and to live in a
grand house, and go to places. I should like to marry somebody rich."
And having blurted out this last confession, she looked half ashamed of
herself.

"Mollie," said Aimee, solemnly dropping her hands and her work upon her
lap, "I am beginning to feel as Dolly does; I