eyes gleaming with
excitement.

"Oh, you dear child!" cried that young lady, leaping to her feet and
springing forward to meet her visitor, "you have come to tell me that
you are going to Europe with me."

"I have come to stay all night with you if you will let me," Violet
replied, returning the eager caress with which Nellie had greeted her.

"If I will 'let' you! You know I shall be only too glad to have you. But
how happy you look! You surely have good news to tell me."

Violet flushed, and her eyes drooped for a moment.

"Yes, I believe I shall go to Europe with you," she answered, her face
dimpling with smiles, and Nellie immediately went into ecstasies over
the announcement.

"I am perfectly enchanted," she cried; "and will you remain the whole
year?"

"I do not know about that," Violet thoughtfully replied. "I have not set
any time for my return. I shall go for three months at any rate, and I
may conclude to remain longer."

"I wish you could come to Milan to study music with me," Nellie
remarked, wistfully.

"I imagine that Belle would not consent to that," Violet returned. "She
would be afraid that we two girls would get into mischief if left to
ourselves. I suppose I shall travel with Mrs. Hawley, but I will try to
pay you a visit now and then if I remain any length of time."

The girls found much to talk about in anticipation of their journey, and
the time passed quickly and pleasantly until the dinner hour, while
during the meal the family were all so agreeable and entertaining--for
Violet was a great favorite with them--that she forgot, for the time,
the unpleasantness of the morning and her clear, happy laugh rang out
with all her customary abandon.

She had not mentioned her misunderstanding with her sister, for her
pride rebelled against having it known that she was not entirely happy
in her home; and when, shortly after dinner, Mrs. Mencke called and
asked to see Violet alone, she excused the circumstance by remarking
that she supposed it was upon some matter of business.

Mrs. Mencke had been furious, upon her return home to find how she and
Sarah had both been outwitted, and she had come to Mrs. Bailey's
prepared, not to apologize, but to be very severe upon the offender for
her defiance of all authority.

But the sight of her happy face and sparkling eyes disarmed her, and she
passed over the affair much more lightly than Violet had dared to hope
she would.

The young girl frankly