rom suffering, and her life made
bright and interesting during the months ahead.

Lessons came off badly that afternoon, for the girls were too much
absorbed in the excitement of the prospective wedding to be able to fix
their attention on the problems of arithmetic and geography. When the
great problem of the hour was to decide the number of bridesmaids and
what kind of frocks they should wear, how could they be expected to feel
any interest in discovering how many yards of paper it would take to
cover the walls of a problematical chamber, or in describing the
eccentricities of the Gulf Stream? Miss Roberts realised the
impossibility of the situation, and shortened the hours in considerate
fashion; and no sooner had she taken her departure than the three girls
rushed to the porch-room, surrounded Lilias in a whirlwind of
excitement, and dragged her to a chair in their midst.

"At last we can talk! Such a pity Nan is ill, and won't let Maud leave
the room; but we can have it all over again with them to-morrow. Talk!
I feel as if I could talk for ever! Oh, Lilias, how do you feel? If I
were engaged, I don't know what would happen to me! I should go stark,
staring mad with excitement."

"How nice for him! You would have another person to consider then,
remember," said Lilias prettily. "I am not at all inclined to go mad,
though I am certainly very much excited. It is difficult to describe my
feelings. I can't realise it yet, and feel all--"

"Jumbled up!" suggested Agatha sympathetically. "Of course you do. I
should myself. Oh, Lil, do have them in yellow! I've been thinking
about it all the afternoon, and I think yellow would be sw-eet! With
bouquets of daffodils! Very few people have yellow, and it would be so
uncommon, and make us look much paler too. I shall have a face like a
beetroot with excitement; I know I shall."

"I daresay! And how should I look, I'd like to know?" queried
Christabel loftily. "Sea green, my dear. I'm sallow enough as it is,
but imagine my appearance in a yellow dress! I should present a
shocking spectacle! Nothing is so nice as pink: it suits every one, and
is so bright and pretty. Pink silk dresses, with Leghorn hats."

Elsie grimaced in disapproving fashion.

"So commonplace! Every one has pink. We must have something altogether
unique and striking. No use deciding now, for we will change our minds
a dozen times before the time arrives. When are you to be m