he appearance she should make at the Court of St. James,
Maggie leaped on Gritty's back and bounded away, while Hagar looked
wistfully after her, saying as she wiped the tears from her eyes:
"Heaven bless the girl! She might sit on the throne of England any
day, and Victoria wouldn't disgrace herself at all by doing her
reverence, even if she be a child of Hagar Warren."

As Maggie had said, Madam Conway was going to England. At first she
thought of taking the young ladies with her, but, thinking they were
hardly old enough yet to be emancipated from the schoolroom, she
decided to leave them under the supervision of Mrs. Jeffrey, whose
niece she promised to bring with her on her return to America. Upon
her departure she bade Theo and Maggie a most affectionate adieu,
adding:

"Be good girls while I am away, keep in the house, mind Mrs. Jeffrey,
and don't fall in love."

This last injunction came involuntarily from the old lady, to whom
the idea of their falling in love was quite as preposterous as to
themselves.

"Fall in love!" repeated Maggie, when her tears were dried, and she
with Theo was driving slowly home. "What could grandma mean! I wonder
who there is for us to love, unless it be John the coachman, or Bill
the gardener. I almost wish we could get in love though, just to see
how 'twould seem, don't you?" she continued.

"Not with anybody here," answered Theo, her nose slightly elevated at
the thought of people whom she had been educated to despise.

"Why not here as well as elsewhere?" asked Maggie. "I don't see any
difference. But grandma needn't be troubled, for such things as men's
boots never come near our house. It's a shame, though," she continued,
"that we don't know anybody, either male or female. Let's go down to
Worcester some day, and get acquainted. Don't you remember the two
handsome young men whom we saw five years ago in Douglas' store, and
how they winked at each other when grandma ran down their goods and
said there were not any darning needles fit to use this side of the
water?"

On most subjects Theo's memory was treacherous, but she remembered
perfectly well the two young men, particularly the taller one, who had
given her a remnant of blue ribbon which he said was just the color
of her eyes. Still, the idea of going to Worcester did not strike her
favorably. "She wished Worcester would come to them," she said, "but
she should not dare to go there. They would surely get lost. Grandm