ing jackstones in the hall.

Sissy looked up. Assuming a rigidly erect position and scholastically
correct finger-movement, she mimicked her aunt at her desk so faithfully
that Split could almost see the close-lined pages of Miss Madigan's
ornate handwriting on the carpet where her disrespectful niece pretended
to trace it.

"Scribbling, huh?" Split asked.

Sissy nodded.

Split shrugged her shoulders impatiently. She had intended to ask a
favor of Aunt Anne, but she knew how useless it would be now. So she
pushed past Sissy, entered the room softly, and returned with a
long-trained grenadine skirt.

Sissy's round eyes opened enviously. "Did she say you could have it?"
she asked.

A muffled sound which could be variously interpreted came from Split,
who was throwing the skirt over her head.

"Did she?" persisted Sissy, putting her jackstones in her pocket and
rising emulatively.

But Irene was doubling fold after fold of the skirt in front to shorten
it; behind her the train billowed with an elegance that sent ecstatic
thrills through her and a passion of envy through her sister.

"Is she writing yet?" Sissy asked at length.

Irene nodded. She was cinching her sash tight about the waist, so that
her trained skirt might not come off in the ardor of "playing lady."
When Sissy disappeared, and reappeared with her aunt's claret-colored
poplin, Split was catching up her train with a grace that was simply
ravishing as she rustled away.

"What'll you say to her--afterward?" called Sissy after her, prudently
facing the future, even in the height of delight induced by feeling
ruffles about her feet.

[Illustration:
"A train meant domesticity and dignity to Sissy. In
Split it bred and fostered a spirit of coquetry"]

"Pouf!" A train meant domesticity and dignity to Sissy. In Split it bred
and fostered a spirit of coquetry; she believed herself to be very
French in long skirts. "I'll just say she said 'Yes' when I asked her.
She never knows what she says when she's writing."

Sissy nodded understandingly, and rustled in a most ladylike manner
after her senior. The twins saw the two beautiful creatures swishing
down the front steps, bound for the street to show their glory and feel
the peacock's delight in dragging his tail in the dust.

"Did she say you could have 'em?" they shrieked.

And Sissy responded with that quick imitative gesture that signified
scribbling.

With a light on their face