a had told them that they
looked like ninnies when they appeared not to know what people meant,
and they could not endure the thought.

Sighed Blue at last, "Do you think it would be dreadfully wicked not to
go?"

All the guests had passed them by this time, for they had loitered
sadly. It was not that they were not proud of their clothes; they were
as proud as peacocks, and minced along; but then it was enough just to
wear one's fine clothes and imagine that they might meet somebody who
would admire them.

"Oh, Blue," said Red suddenly, withholding her steps, "suppose we didn't
go, and were to walk back just a little later, don't you think we might
meet--?" There was no name, but a sympathetic understanding. It was
Harkness of whom they thought.

"I'm sure he's a great deal better looking than young Mr. Brown, and I
think it's unkind to mind the way he talks. Since Winifred had her teeth
done, I think we might just bow a little, if we met him on the road."

"I think it would be naughty," said Red, reflectively, "but nice--much
nicer than a grown-up picnic."

"Let's do it," said Blue. "We're awfully good generally; that ought to
make up."

The sunset cloud was still rosy, and the calm bright moon was riding up
the heavens when these two naughty little maidens, who had waited out of
sight of the picnic ground, judged it might be the right time to be
walking slowly home again.

"I feel convinced he won't come," said Blue, "just because we should so
much like to pass him in these frocks."

Now an evil conscience often is the rod of its own chastisement; but in
this instance there was another factor in the case, nothing less than a
little company of half tipsy men, who came along from the town,
peacefully enough, but staggering visibly and talking loud, and the
girls caught sight of them when they had come a long way from the
pleasure party and were not yet very near any house. The possibility of
passing in safety did not enter their panic-stricken minds. They no
sooner spied the men than they stepped back within the temporary shelter
of a curve in the road, speechless with terror. They heard the voices
and steps coming nearer. They looked back the long road they had come,
and perceived that down its length they could not fly. It was in this
moment of despair that a brilliant idea was born in the mind of Red. She
turned to the low open fence of the little cemetery.

"Come, we can pretend to be tombs," she cried