red
valiantly and defiantly that she had been "splendid."

Gyp had not closely followed Cora Stanton's address, so she had not
guessed the truth, and Jerry could not tell her--Jerry could not tell
anyone. For, if she did, it must be traced to Isobel, and Isobel was
Uncle Johnny's niece. At that very moment Uncle Johnny was talking, down
in the front of the Assembly room, to Isobel and Amy Mathers, and he
stood with one arm thrown over Isobel's shoulder.

But, alone in her own room, the pent-up passion that had been searing
poor Jerry's soul burst; with furious fingers she tore off the brown
poplin dress and threw it into a corner.

"Ugly--horrid--hideous--old--thing! I _hate_ it!" It was not, of course,
the brown poplin alone she hated! The offending shoes followed the brown
dress. "I hate _everything_ about me! I wish--I wish--to-morrow would
never come! I wish----" Jerry threw herself face downward upon her bed.
"I wish I--was--home!"

CHAPTER XI

AUNT MARIA

"A letter from Aunt Maria," announced Graham, appearing at the door of
his mother's little sitting room, a large, square lavender envelope in
his hand. He carried it gingerly between a thumb and finger, and as far
as he could from his upturned nose, "I'd suggest, mother, that you put
on my gas-mask before you open it!"

Gyp and Tibby laughed uproariously at his wit. Mrs. Westley reached for
the envelope.

"Poor Aunt Maria, she must be so glad that the war is over and she can
get her favorite French sachet."

Isobel perched herself upon the arm of her mother's chair.

"Hurry, read it, mother."

"I'll bet she's coming to visit us," groaned Gyp.

"Don't expect us to throw away money, sis! She never writes 'cept when
she _is_ coming. Break the news, mum; is it to be a little stay of a
year or more?"

Mrs. Westley lifted laughing eyes from the open letter.

"She says she will come next Wednesday to spend a few days with us. She
is very sorry that that must be all--she is on her way to New York to
consult a famous nerve specialist. She sends love to 'the beautiful
children.'"

Jerry was very curious--no one had ever mentioned an Aunt Maria! So Gyp
and Graham hastened to explain that Aunt Maria wasn't a _real_ aunt but
was "only" Isobel's godmother and something of a nuisance--to the
younger Westleys.

"She doesn't give us presents," Graham concluded.

"She's forgotten all the things she 'did promise and vow' when Isobel
was baptized. She