that reason she ought to have
a chance--a chance which might possibly mean a chance for Elizabeth too.
She smiled at the girl and Laura's smile was winning enough to disarm a
worse child than Sadie.

"If you do not think it best for Elizabeth to attend our Council
meetings regularly, perhaps you would be willing to let her come this
next Saturday and bring her sister. After the business is over, we are
going to have a fudge party. I have a little upstairs kitchen just for
the girls to use whenever they like. I think your daughter might enjoy
it--if she cared to come--with Elizabeth."

Marvellous was the effect of those few words on Sadie. Seeing a refusal
on her mother's lips, she burst out eagerly, "O mother, I want to go--I
_want_ to go! You _must_ let me."

Taken entirely by surprise, Mrs. Page hesitated--and was lost. What
Sadie wanted, her mother wanted for her, and she saw that Sadie's heart
was set on accepting this invitation. "I suppose they might go, just for
this once," she yielded reluctantly.

Laura allowed no time for reconsideration. "I shall expect both of them
then, on Saturday," she said and turned to go. She longed to look back
towards the kitchen where she felt sure that Elizabeth must have been
wistfully listening, but Mrs. Page and Sadie following her to the door,
gave her no chance for even a backward glance.

"Good-bye," Sadie called after her as she went down the steps, and the
child's small foxy face was alight with anticipation.

Slamming the door after the caller, Sadie flew to the kitchen.

"There now, Elizabeth," she cried, "I'm going to her house next Saturday
and you're going--you can just thank me for that too. Mother wouldn't
have let you go if it hadn't been for me."

Elizabeth's face brightened, but there was a little shadow on it too. Of
course it was better to go with Sadie than not to go at all--O, much
better--but still----

When Saturday came Sadie was in a whirl of excitement. She even
offered--an unheard-of concession--to wipe the supper dishes so that
Elizabeth might get through her work the sooner, and she plastered a
huge white bow across the back of her head, and pulled down the skirt of
her dress to make it as long as possible. Sadie would gladly have thrown
away three years of her life so that she might be sixteen, and really
grown up that very night.

Olga was waiting at the corner for them, Miss Laura having told her that
Elizabeth was to go. Her scathing gl