and
holding it fast, despite the other's struggles, demanded tersely:

"What's that?"

"Oh, Dreda, I--I have been waiting to tell you! The doctor said you
were to be kept so quiet. It's a--a-- Guy gave it to me."

"Guy?" The face on the pillow was all blank surprise and bewilderment.
"What Guy?"

"Guy Seton--my Guy! It's an engagement ring. Oh, Dreda, I have been
longing to tell you. I'm _so_--happy!"

"You--are--engaged--to Guy Seton?" repeated Dreda blankly. Instead of
the radiant smile which Rowena expected, her face hardened with
displeasure, and she drew her brows together in a frown. "When? How?
Why? I never dreamt of such a thing. It seems too extraordinary to be
true."

"Oh, Dreda, why? We think it so natural. We were made for each other.
It seems as if we must always have been engaged. I thought you would be
so pleased."

"Well, I'm not," declared Dreda decidedly. "Not at all. I don't like
it one bit. It upsets all my plans. I used to imagine that father
would get all his money back and I should come home from school and go
about with you--two fair young _debutantes_--always together, having
such fun, sitting up afterwards in our bedrooms brushing our hair and
talking over what had happened as they do in books. It will be so dull
being alone with no one but Maud. Oh, Rowena, you _are_ selfish!"

But Rowena only laughed, and dimpled complacently.

"Oh, Dreda, you _are_ funny! You didn't expect me always to stay at
home, did you? I am the eldest; it is only natural that I should be
married first, and if I _am_ to be married, surely you would rather have
Guy than anyone else! There is no one like him. All the men we have
known are like puppets compared with him. He is so true, so strong, so
noble. You ought to be proud, Dreda, that you are going to have him for
a brother."

"Well, I'm not," declared Dreda once more. "It's not a bit what I
expected. I thought that first day he seemed so taken with _me_! I
thought--at least, I didn't think, but I _should_ have thought if I had
thought, do you understand?--that he would have wanted to be engaged to
_me_! Not yet, of course, but he could have waited till I was grown up.
And you were so huffy and stiff, and I raced across the fields to find
mother, and took such trouble. It doesn't seem fair!"

But Rowena only laughed again, without a trace of offence.

"Poor old Dreda, it _is_ hard lines. Never mind, dear; think of the