u know, only your dead half-uncle's widow."

It was true, what the sweet, patient woman said; she was not related to
them at all, but she had boarded them at the cheapest rates, and been
most kind and motherly. They had intended to pay what they owed that
very day, but jealousy of her daughter, their lovely cousin, crept in
between and made them withhold the pittance, in the malicious hope of
preventing Dainty's trip to Ellsworth.

Both girls were handsome and stylish in their way--Olive, a tall, dark,
haughty brunette of twenty-four, while Ela Craye was twenty-two, pretty
and delicate-looking, with a waxen skin, thick brown hair, and limpid,
long-lashed gray eyes. Each girl cherished a hope of winning the rich
and handsome heir of Ellsworth, and they feared the rivalry of a girl as
fresh and lovely as the morning, and with the rounded slenderness of
eighteen, piquant features, rose-leaf complexion, delicious dimples, a
wealth of curling golden hair, and large, deep, violet-blue eyes full of
soul and tenderness.

How could Love Ellsworth, as his step-mother called him, keep from
losing his heart to such winsome beauty joined to the exquisite timidity
of a very innocent and shy girl? Olive and Ela knew but too well that
finery would not cut much figure in the case. Dainty had a real French
art in dress, and could look as lovely in a print gown as they appeared
in their finest silks. Give her a cheap white gown, and a few yards of
lace and ribbon, and she could look like a Peri just strayed away from
paradise.

Her cousins fairly cudgeled their brains for some scheme to keep Dainty
from going with them, and a happy thought struck them at last.

They knew that Dainty had never traveled alone in her life, and that she
was an arrant little coward among strangers. If they could only give her
the slip, she would sooner give up the trip than to follow alone.

They were to go on Wednesday morning, and Mrs. Chase and her daughter
were up betimes, packing the girl's trunk with her freshly laundered
clothing, after which the mother said:

"All is ready, dear, and you'd better go and tell Olive and Ela that
breakfast will be ready in five minutes, for there's no time to lose."

But when Dainty knocked at the door of the room the girls shared
together, it flew wide open, and she saw that it was vacant, while a
note pinned on the pillow conveyed this explanation:

"DEAR AUNT,--Just for a lark, we concluded, ten minutes