The Little Colonel: Maid of Honor

was going on inside the great Hall, but no whisper of it disturbed the quiet of the sleepy old garden. At intervals the faint clang of the call-bell, s

motionless, their resplendent tails spread out in the sun; and although the air was filled with the odor of wild plum blossoms, the br

her pencil rapidly across the pages of her note-book. At times she stopped to tap impatiently on the table, when the word she wanted failed to come. Then she would sit loo

t. This year's souvenir volume bade fair to be the brightest and most creditable one ever issued by the school. The English professor not only openly s

ng measure up to the standard she had set for it. It was work that she loved better than play, however, and to-day sh

There was a tread of many feet on the great staircase, the outer doors bu

ering up her papers, preparatory to making her escape. She glanced down the long flight of marble steps leading to the river. There on the lowest terrace, a fringe of willow-trees trailed their sweeping bra

girls, except her four most intimate friends, would dare think of following her down there, and if

is players, and the newly organized basket-ball team. A moment more, and the four she was waiting for tramped out abreast, arm in arm: Lloyd Sherman, Gay Melville, Allison and Kitty Walton. Gay carried a kodak, and, from the remarks which floated over the hedge, it was evident the

y diddle

maids in a

wn to get

diddled

es, all in a row on the limb of a plum-tree in the orchard, their laughing fac

down the stately marble steps to the seat under the willow. It was so cool and shadowy down there that at first it was a temptation just to sit and listen to the lap of the w

tree. The special-delivery letter she carried was her excuse for following. She had been in a flutter of delight when Madame Chartley put it in her hand, asking her to find Elizabeth Lewis and give it to

up with an absent-minded stare. She had been so busy polishing a figure of speech to her satisfaction that she had forgotten where she was. For an instant the preoccupied little pucker between her eyebrows smote the timid freshman

rassed reply, held out the letter. Then she stood with toes turned in, and b

he managed to say at last. "I-I

throat. "Thank you, dear," she answered, cordially. Then, as he

hday that ever was. She's not to know till to-morrow. It's too good a secret to keep to m

ace for her to join them. They were going to Mammy Easter's cabin to have their fortunes told. Feeling that this was the best fortune that had befallen her since her

ulty's opinion of her. Dora's roommate, Cornie Dean, had chosen Lloyd Sherman as the shrine of her young affections, and it was from Cornie that Dora had learned the personal history of her literary idol. She knew that Lloyd Sherman's mother was Betty's godmother, and that the two girls lived together as sisters in a beautiful old home in Kentucky called "The Locusts." She had seen the photograph of the place hanging in Betty's room, and had heard scraps of information about the variou

iendship," which all the girls had raved over. She herself knew it by heart, and she knew of at least six copies

ght. If reports were true that was also the hand which would write the valedictory next year, and which was now

oked up with a radiant face. "Now I'll read it aloud," she said. "It will take several readings to mak

r a second house-party, a duplicate of the one she had six years ago, when she was eleven. I have bidden to it the same guests which came to the first one, you and Eugenia Forbes and Joyce Ware, but Eugenia will come as a bride this time. I have persuaded her to have her wedding here at Locust, among her only kindred, instead of in New York, where she and

ertainly carry out my idea of a rose wedding. Now do not let the thoughts of all this gaiety interfere with your studies. That is all I can tell you now, but you may spend your s

beth S

the letter. "The Princess is going to be so happy over this," she exclaimed. "I'm sure she'll enjoy this second house-party at se

n, she went on to recall some of the good times they had had at Locust, and in answer to Dora's timid questions explained why Lloyd was called The L

uth, to be so lucky," sighed Dora, presently. "Life

st term. It nearly broke her heart to drop behind her class, and she still grieves over it every day. The doctors forbade her taking extra work to catch up with it. Then s

them, happened to look up just then. "There she comes now," s

own the terraces, taking the flight of marble steps two at a time. Gay's shoe-strings were tripping her at every

g down on the bench, almost breathless,

er boy had just come out to the Hall on a bicycle with a special-delivery lettah from h

'The Beeches,'" interrupted Allison, "and that m

ck look at Dora to see if her face was betraying anything. "It was just a

ial delivery if it isn't impawtant?

ant," laughed

. You know that anything about mothah or The Locusts must concern me, too, and that I am just as much in

"and I'm dying to tell you, but godmother

day present. Tell me what it is now, Betty," she wheedled. "I'd lots rathah know now than t

h, and rocked back and forth on the b

at I can hardly keep from telling you, and I'm afraid if y

Kitty. "Lloyd will hide her

e bag when a secret is once shared, and I know you coul

something at Betty's feet. It was the sample of

something to do with Eugenia's rose wedding, and mothah is going to give me m

'd say you were getting rather warm. That is not the present your mother mentioned, although it is a sample of th

s?" asked Grace Campman, one of the girls who had been posing i

it any wondah that I'm ne

d chorus. "Just half a day befor

n and beg her,"

ulsively to begin the siege to wrest the secret from her, but another reference to the maid of honor by Grace mad

e not intended for her to know. I hadn't thought. If mothah took all the trouble of sending a special-deliv

'Maid of Orleans,' and that only some high and mighty creature like Joan of Arc could do it. But it's nothing more than to go first in the wedding march

t shrug, and in a tone which Dora describ

the differenc

lord the ki

of pink chiffon in Betty's lap, as if it h

s take the rest of those pictuahs. The

hat had fallen from her note-book. "It's no use trying to write with my he

away's cottage had not yet begun to flaunt their rosettes of color, but the rhododendrons from Killarney were in gorgeous bloom. As Lloyd focussed the camera in such a w

y in the mawning, just as soon as I lay ey

first place, it's something that can't be carried, and in the se

sity. "Betty Lewis," she said, solemnly, "I could find it in my heart

as we got away from Grace Campman and those freshmen, for it concerns you and Kitty, too. You missed the first house-party we had at The Locusts, but you'l