e
with what she hoped was becoming dignity, and in silence the girls
watched her put on her hat and coat. Phyllis followed her to the door.

"Muriel, don't be silly," she pleaded. "We've been such chums, I can't
bear to see you so changed." But Muriel refused to be comforted.

"It isn't my fault if you can't keep up with me," she said coldly, and
Phyllis was too angry to answer.

She walked upstairs slowly. "I've lost Muriel," she said wistfully,
but a sudden thought made her run up the rest of the way, two steps at
a time.

"Girls, do you realize that this time to-morrow Janet will actually be
here?" she exclaimed joyfully.

"Aunt Jane's poll parrot, so she will!" said Sally.

CHAPTER IV

JANET ARRIVES

Phyllis opened her eyes on Wednesday morning, and frowned as she heard
the rain beating down on the tin roof below her window.

"It has no business to rain to-day of all days," she said crossly;
"but, after all, it doesn't matter, for, rain or shine, Janet is
coming."

She looked through the open door into the room adjoining hers and
smiled. From her bed she could see the dainty white dressing table and
the soft-colored print of Raphael's Madonna hanging in its gold frame
beside it. Her own room, as her eyes traveled back to it, was shabby
in comparison, but that only made her smile the more.

"It's just too heavenly to be true," she whispered dreamily. "How
silly I've been to worry whether she will like it or not. Of course
she will, and oh, joy of joys, she will be here in less than, let me
see, eight hours." She jumped out of bed and in a few minutes she was
singing in her bath.

"Phyllis, Phyllis, if you don't stop acting like a crazy person I don't
know what I shall do," Miss Carter sighed later in the morning as
Phyllis, growing more and more excited as the minutes passed, flew
upstairs and down, upsetting everything in her effort to keep busy.

"I know, Aunt Mogs, but I can't help it. I shall probably die before
the train gets in," Phyllis confessed as she sat down at last and tried
to concentrate on a book. But the print danced before her eyes, and in
not more than a minute she was up again.

"I knew I'd forgotten something!" she exclaimed.

"What is it now?" her aunt inquired, smiling gently.

"Flowers. The ones I bought day before yesterday are all wilted. Oh,
I know you told me they would be, but don't say, 'I told you so,'
please."

"No, I won't. I'm almost glad the