e from the ignominy
of the debate. And she had found that the girls, instead of laughing at
her, envied her because Dana King had so gallantly come to her rescue!

"You should have seen Isobel Westley's face--she was _furious_," Ginny
Cox had confided to her. And Jerry would not have been human if she had
not felt a momentary thrill of satisfied revenge.

The attention of the younger Westleys was centered, during the
intervening days, on Aunt Maria's approaching visit. Isobel was much
disturbed over the dire hints which Gyp and Graham dropped at different
times. One of Graham's friends had a pet snake and Graham had asked to
borrow it "just over Wednesday."

"It'll strengthen her nerves better'n any old doctor," Graham declared,
loftily.

"Mother, _do_ you hear them----" appealed Isobel, almost in tears.

Isobel had been building for herself a rosy dream; she had even,
casually, told a few of the girls at school that "in June I'm going
abroad with my godmother, Mrs. Cornelius Drinkwater--you know her mother
was a second cousin to the Marquis of Balencourt and the family has a
beautiful chateau near Nice. Of course we'll stay there part of the
time----" A very little fib like that, Isobel had decided, could hurt no
one! She had lain awake at night, staring into the half-darkness of her
room, picturing herself sauntering beside Aunt Maria through long hotel
corridors, to the Opera, to the little French shops, driving beside Aunt
Maria through the Bois de Boulogne and walking on the Champs Elysees,
admired everywhere, envied, too. And perhaps, through Aunt Maria's
relatives (it was very easy in the dark to pretend that there _was_ a
Marquis of Balencourt) she might meet a handsome, dashing young
Frenchman who would go quite crazy about her, and it would be such fun
writing home to the girls----

"Graham," and Mrs. Westley made her voice very stern. "You must not play
a single trick on Aunt Maria!"

"But, mother, she may stay on and on----"

"If you'll be very good," Mrs. Westley blushed a little, for she knew
she was "buying" her children, "while Aunt Maria's here I'll take you
all to see 'The Land o'Dreams.'"

"We promise! We promise!" came in an eager assent.

"I'll tell Joe I don't want his snake," said Graham.

"I won't laugh all the while she's here," declared Gyp.

"We'll be angelic, mother," they chorused, and they really meant it.

Aunt Maria's arrival, an hour before dinner, was nothing short of
ma