the gleam in Elizabeth's eyes showed her the wild streak
was uppermost. "What are you saying?" she faltered, but before she
could remonstrate further Elizabeth had acted. With a lightning-like
motion she dropped upon her knees, and, fortunately concealed by the
crowd and the heavy curtains, she darted cat-like beneath the
window-blind and disappeared.

She found herself upon a secluded side of a veranda, and still on all
fours; she gave a mad caper across the floor, and staggered to her
feet, her hat flopping rakishly over one ear.

Then she stood, motionless with dismay. Right in front of her,
half-reclining in a veranda chair, was a lady, a richly dressed lady of
very sedate appearance, who was gazing with startled eyes at the
tumultuous apparition.

"I--I beg your pardon," gasped Elizabeth. "But I couldn't stand it
another minute."

The two looked at each other for a moment, and then the stately woman
and the hoydenish girl, with one accord, burst out laughing.

Elizabeth flung herself upon a chair and rocked convulsively.

"It--it's the first time I've ever got into society," she said between
gasps; "and now I've gone and got out of it again."

"And a peculiar manner of exit you chose," said the lady, wiping her
eyes on a lace handkerchief. "But I must confess I ran away too."

"You?" cried Elizabeth, amazed.

"Yes. I came here with my niece, I am sure an [Transcriber's note:
line missing from source book?] hours ago. She disappeared into the
card-room, and I slipped out here. I didn't come in your original
manner, however." She laughed again.

"I should think not," said Elizabeth, sitting up and straightening her
hat. She was now quite at her ease, since the lady was proving so
delightfully sympathetic. "I am afraid I'm not truly genteel, or I
shouldn't have bolted at my first sight of high life."

"How will you feel when you have been to hundreds of such affairs, all
exactly alike, I wonder?" asked the lady wearily.

Elizabeth shook her head. "I couldn't stand it. My aunt thinks I need
the refining influence of good society, but it doesn't seem to have had
that effect upon me," she added rather mournfully.

The lady laughed again. "Well, as receptions go, it seemed to me a
very pretty one indeed, and Miss Raymond is a beautiful girl."

"Oh, Stella's lovely," cried Elizabeth enthusiastically, "and
everything is just grand, far more splendid than anything I ever saw
before. You see,