ng a chance to make amends, she relaxed her rigid laws for one
evening and permitted the gathering at The Dale. And a few evenings
earlier she sent Malcolm with a graciously worded note, asking Mr. and
Mrs. Johnstone and Mrs. McKerracher to accompany the young people.

The invitation was as graciously accepted. The elder folk came and sat
around the fire and watched the young folk fill the house with noise
and merriment, and the breach was healed. The MacAllisters were there;
and Miss Hillary and all those from Forest Glen who were taking part
were driven up in the Robertsons' sleigh.

It was like a magic evening out of a fairy tale to Elizabeth. There
was a roaring fire in both the parlor and dining-room; all doors
between the rooms were opened, giving a spacious effect, and every lamp
and candle in the place was alight. The big, bare house seemed like
some great festive palace to Elizabeth, and, as she sat on the stairs
watching their guests file in, she felt sure she could realize exactly
how Lady Evelina felt when she stood in her father's banqueting hall
and received a glittering array of lords and dukes and earls. But
surely no Lady Evelina of song or story ever experienced the rapture
felt by Elizabeth when Rosie came dancing up the steps.

To Miss Gordon the evening proved highly satisfactory. The atmosphere
of festivity made her feel young again, and the reconciliation with the
Johnstones, common folk though they undoubtedly were, was very grateful
to her warm heart, and above all she was vouchsafed a surprising
revelation. Elizabeth proved to be the vision revealed. There was
hope that Elizabeth was not stupid after all.

The dialogue in which she figured was one Martha Ellen Robertson had
chosen from the "Complete Temperance Reciter," and was intended to
inculcate a lesson of a highly moral character, namely, the folly of
marrying a drunkard. Martha Ellen had indulgently chosen her pet pupil
as heroine. Elizabeth was a haughty belle who persisted in the face of
all opposition in marrying Charles Stuart, who staggered through the
whole three acts with a big, green catsup bottle in each pocket. Rosie
Carrick and Teenie Johnstone did their best to dissuade the mistaken
one from her strange infatuation, even setting the good example of
choosing Willie Carrick and Johnny Johnstone, exemplary young men, as
their sweethearts, but all in vain. The haughty belle would listen to
no one, and at the end o