Cornelia showing signs of rebellion
at the end of a fortnight! It said much for the impression which that
young lady had made that there was a note of actual entreaty in the
voice in which her aunt addressed her.

"I think you must reconsider your decision, Cornelia. I strongly wish
you to accept these invitations, and my friends will be much
disappointed if you refuse. When you understand the position, I feel
sure you will put your own wishes on one side, and consent to do what is
right and fitting."

But Miss Cornelia tossed her head, and the impish light flashed back
into her golden eyes.

"I ken't break my word," she said bluntly. In moments of friction her
American accent was even more strongly marked than usual, which fact was
not calculated to soften her aunt's irritation, "Poppar had me taught to
say a thing and stick to it, no matter how I suffered. I've _said_ I
won't go, and I _won't_--not if all the old ladies in Christendom were
to come and howl at the door! You ken tell 'em I've come out in spots,
and you reckon I'm going down with small-pox."

"That would not be true."

"Oh, shucks!" shrugged Cornelia. "Troth is a fine institootion, but,
like most old things, it gives out at times, and then there's nothing
for it but to fall back upon good, new-fashioned imagination."

Miss Briskett rose majestically from her seat and left the room.

Cornelia lifted the remnant of bread which lay beside her plate, raised
it high above her head, and deliberately pitched it to the end of the
room. It hit against the wall, and fell over the carpet in a shower of
crumbs. She chuckled malevolently, gave the table a vicious shove on
one side, and rose in her turn.

On one of the tables by the window stood a neat little pile of books;
she lifted the topmost, and thrusting it under her arm, marched
deliberately down the garden path to the front gate, and thence across
the road towards the gate leading into the plantation. It was a hot,
sunny day, and half-way up the green knoll stood an oak tree, whose
spreading branches made delightful dapplings of shade. Here also a
gentle breeze rustled the leaves to and fro, while in the stuffy paths
below the air itself seemed exhausted and bereft of life. Cornelia
lifted her white skirts, with a display of slim brown ankles which would
have scandalised the Norton worthies, stepped neatly and cleanly over
the wire arches, and made a bee-line across the grass for the forb