off,
that day, and had prevailed on Mr. Stanford to remain and accompany him.

Rose felt about as desolate as if she had been shipwrecked on a desert
island. There was a pang of jealousy mingled with the desolation, too.
Emily Howard was a sparkling brunette, a coquette, an heiress, and a
belle. Was it the skating excursion or Emily's big black eyes that had
tempted him to linger? Perhaps Emily would go with them skating, and
Rose knew how charming piquant little Miss Howard was on skates.

It was a miserable morning altogether, and Rose tormented herself in
true orthodox lover-like style. She roamed about the house aimlessly,
pulling out her watch perpetually to look at the hour, and sighing
drearily. She wondered at Kate, who sat so placidly playing some song
without words, with the Scotch baronet standing by the piano, absorbed.

"What does she know of love?" thought Rose, contemptuously. "She is as
cold as a polar iceberg. She ought to marry that knight of the woeful
countenance beside her, and be my lady, and live in a castle, and eat
and sleep in velvet and rubies. It would just suit her."

Doctor Danton came up in the course of the forenoon, to make a
professional call. His patient was better, calmer, less nervous, and
able to sit up in a rocking-chair, wrapped in a great shawl. Grace
persuaded him to stay to luncheon, and he did, and tried to win Miss
Rose out of the dismals, and got incontinently snubbed for his pains.

But there was balm in Gilead for Rose. Just after luncheon a little
shell-like sleigh, with prancing ponies and jingling bells, whirled
musically up to the door. A pretty, blooming, black-eyed girl was its
sole occupant; and Rose, at the drawing-room window, ran out to meet
her.

"My darling Emily!" cried Rose, kissing the young lady she had been
wishing at Jericho all day, "how glad I am to see you! Come in! You will
stay to dinner, won't you?"

"No, dear," said Miss Howard, "I can't. I just came over for you; I am
alone, and want you to spend the evening. Don't say no; Mr. Stanford
will be home to dinner with George, and he will escort you back."

"You pet!" cried Rose, with another rapturous kiss. "Just wait five
minutes while I run up and dress."

Miss Howard was not very long detained. Rose was back, all ready, in
half an hour.

"Would your sister come?" inquired Miss Howard, doubtfully, for she was
a good deal in awe of that tall majestic sister.

"Who? Kate? Oh, she is out r