ribbons and lace, while several lockets and charms attached
to velvet bands added to her glory. "Now, with a few of those ostrich tips
in my hair, I shall be ready to start for the Governor's ball," she added,
dancing around the room, sending the ribbons and laces gaily fluttering
behind her.

"You'll bawl at home, my lady, if you spoil anything with your capers,"
said Cora. "Take off those things at once, Elsie; some of them are mine, I
know. Oh! here is a note, mother. The coral set belongs to Elsie, and is
presented by her godmother, and this bangled set is mine. Do you think they
would be too showy to wear to-night, mother?"

"Oh! what is this beautiful thing?" Dexie exclaimed, as she lifted a
handsome lace bertha. "My! isn't it lovely? How do I look in borrowed
feathers--or laces, to be more exact?"

"Oh, fine!" Elsie replied. "I wonder who it was sent to--not me, I hope; it
would make me look like a fright, while it makes you look like a fairy,"
and Elsie turned to examine another parcel.

But Cora had decided in her own mind who it was that should be the first to
wear the pretty lace affair, for as she looked at Dexie with the fluffy
thing around her neck and throat, she seemed to suggest the very character
she was to fill in the evening, and, as she removed it and laid it gently
aside, Cora whispered to her mother:

"It will suit her nicely, don't you think? What else would do to go with
it?"

"Those ribbons and gloves match it perfectly; they were meant to go
together, I expect, for an evening costume. Just see what she takes a fancy
to, and lay it aside; then use your own judgment."

A little scream of delight from Elsie betokened another pleasant discovery.

"Gloves! boxes of gloves, and handkerchiefs by the set, and all hemmed,
too! Oh! and marked; see, these are my initials. Blessings on the
thoughtful person who sent me those, for my handkerchiefs disappear as
mysteriously as ghosts. Now, if I only unearth a box of shoe-laces, I'll
think my cup of joy quite full."

"Shoe-laces! and they so cheap!" Dexie exclaimed in surprise.

"But I have to buy mine with my pocket-money. I break so many of the
tiresome things, that mother thinks it will make me more careful if I have
to replace them myself. But they are always in knots, and when I have to
keep them neat and tidy at my own expense it leaves me little enough for
chocolate creams. Dear me! I think they might have sent me a few dozen, so
that I mi