"Love and pain
Are kinsfolk twain."

Love changes all the world to the heart that admits him as a guest; but
Dainty was not wise enough to bar the charming little stranger out.

CHAPTER II.

"THE PRETTIEST GIRL IN THE ROOM!"

Golden curls, a snare for Cupid.
Eyes of blue, a treacherous sea,
Where Love's votaries sink drowning,
Wrecked on hidden reefs; ah, me!
Lips of bloom like June's red roses,
Lily throat and dimpled chin,
Glowing cheeks like fragrant posies,
Made for smiles to gather in.
--_Mrs. Alex McVeigh Miller_.

Meanwhile, Olive and Ela, having reached Ellsworth in a high state of
glee at outwitting Dainty so cleverly, received a great shock on
learning from their aunt that Lovelace Ellsworth had expected to
accompany them from Richmond to his home.

Bitterness filled their hearts when they realized what would be the
outcome of their malice--that instead of Dainty having to give up her
trip through timidity at traveling alone, she would have the escort of
the man from whom they had tried so sedulously to keep her apart.

They had told their aunt that they decided to come earlier because it
would be cooler traveling at night, and accounted for Dainty's absence
by declaring that she was not quite decided on coming yet, being
reluctant to leave her mother alone. If she made up her mind to come
anyhow, she would do so later, they said; but they were very careful not
to add that Dainty was so timid she would very likely stay at home
after their base desertion.

When they were alone, they commiserated each other on the failure of
their deep-laid schemes.

"Only to think, that Dainty and Love Ellsworth are together at this
moment, and will be all day long! I can see her now in my mind's eye!
She is sitting beside him in the car, and the sunshine glints on her
curly, golden hair, and brings out the deep pansy-blue, of her big,
childish eyes, and the rose-leaf bloom of her flawless skin. She is
laughing at everything he says, just to show how deep her dimples are,
and how pearly her teeth, and how rosy her lips! It is enough to drive
one mad!" cried Ela, not underrating the least of her rival's charms in
her jealousy of them.

"We can never undo to-day's work, I fear," added Olive, most bitterly,
in her keen disappointment; for the thought of seeing Dainty the
mistress of Ellsworth was almost unbearable.

Since she had arrived at Ellsw