use, room, and sofa with a sprained
foot. As she will be all alone this afternoon, won't you come
down and spend it with her? She very much wants you to
come--she is so lonesome and thinks you will be just the one
to cheer her up.

"Yours cordially,
"Maude Wallace."

"Are you going?" asked Jack.

"Yes--I don't know--I'll think about it," said Florrie absently. Then
she hurried upstairs to her room.

"Shall I go?" she thought. "Yes, I will. I dare say Nan has asked me
just out of pity because I was not invited to the picnic. But even so
it was sweet of her. I've always thought I would like those Wallace
girls if I could get really acquainted with them. They've always been
nice to me, too--I don't know why I am always so tongue-tied and
stupid with them. But I'll go anyway."

That afternoon Mrs. Wallace came into Nan's room.

"Nan, dear, Florrie Hamilton is downstairs asking for you."

"Florrie--Hamilton?"

"Yes. She said something about a note you sent her this morning. Shall
I ask her to come up?"

"Yes, of course," said Nan lamely. When her mother had gone out she
fell back on her pillows and thought rapidly.

"Florrie Hamilton! Maude must have addressed that note to her by
mistake. But she mustn't know it was a mistake--mustn't suspect it.
Oh, dear! What shall I ever find to talk to her about? She is so quiet
and shy."

Further reflections were cut short by Florrie's entrance. Nan held out
her hand with a chummy smile.

"It's good of you to give your afternoon up to visiting a cranky
invalid," she said heartily. "You don't know how lonesome I've been
since Maude went away. Take off your hat and pick out the nicest chair
you can find, and let's be comfy."

Somehow, Nan's frank greeting did away with Florrie's embarrassment
and made her feel at home. She sat down in Maude's rocker, then,
glancing over to a vase filled with roses, her eyes kindled with
pleasure. Seeing this, Nan said, "Aren't they lovely? We Wallaces are
very fond of our climbing roses. Our great-grandmother brought the
roots out from England with her sixty years ago, and they grow nowhere
else in this country."

"I know," said Florrie, with a smile. "I recognized them as soon as I
came into the room. They are the same kind of roses as those which
grow about Grandmother Hamilton's house in England. I used to love
them so."

"In England! Were you eve