were all that produced the effect of modesty, counteracting something
about her which might have seemed too assured. She was very slender,
very dainty, and her apparel was disheartening to the other girls; it
was of a knowing picturesqueness wholly unfamiliar to them. There was
a delicate trace of powder upon the lobe of Fanchon's left ear, and
the outlines of her eyelids, if very closely scrutinized, would have
revealed successful experimentation with a burnt match.

Marjorie's lovely eyes dilated: she learned the meaning of hatred at
first sight. Observing the stranger with instinctive suspicion, all
at once she seemed, to herself, awkward. Poor Marjorie underwent that
experience which hearty, healthy, little girls and big girls undergo at
one time or another--from heels to head she felt herself, somehow, too
THICK.

Fanchon leaned close to Penrod and whispered in his ear:

"Don't you forget!"

Penrod blushed.

Marjorie saw the blush. Her lovely eyes opened even wider, and in them
there began to grow a light. It was the light of indignation;--at least,
people whose eyes glow with that light always call it indignation.

Roderick Magsworth Bitts, Junior, approached Fanchon, when she had made
her courtesy to Mrs. Schofield. Fanchon whispered in Roderick's ear
also.

"Your hair is pretty, Roddy! Don't forget what you said yesterday!"

Roderick likewise blushed.

Maurice Levy, captivated by the newcomer's appearance, pressed close to
Roderick.

"Give us an intaduction, Roddy?"

Roddy being either reluctant or unable to perform the rite, Fanchon took
matters into her own hands, and was presently favourably impressed with
Maurice, receiving the information that his tie had been brought to him
by his papa from Skoone's, whereupon she privately informed him that she
liked wavy hair, and arranged to dance with him. Fanchon also thought
sandy hair attractive, Sam Williams discovered, a few minutes later, and
so catholic was her taste that a ring of boys quite encircled her before
the musicians in the yard struck up their thrilling march, and Mrs.
Schofield brought Penrod to escort the lady from out-of-town to the
dancing pavilion.

Headed by this pair, the children sought partners and paraded solemnly
out of the front door and round a corner of the house. There they found
the gay marquee; the small orchestra seated on the lawn at one side
of it, and a punch bowl of lemonade inviting attention, under a tree.
Deco