?"

"We're going to become beautiful and fascinating, with a fatal charm
that ensnares every man who approaches."

"Do you think we can?" There was some doubt in Patty's tone.

"Mae's got a book," put in Rosalie eagerly, "about 'Beauty and Grace.'
You soak your face in oatmeal and almond-oil and honey, and let your
hair hang in the sun, and whiten your nose with lemon juice, and wear
gloves at night, and--"

"You really ought to have a bath of asses' milk," interrupted Mae.
"Cleopatra had; but I'm afraid it will be impossible to get."

"And you ought to learn to sing," added Rosalie, "and have some one song
like the 'Lorelei!' that you always hum when you're about to ensnare a
victim."

The project was foreign to Patty's ordinary train of thought, but it did
have an element of novelty and allurement. Neither Mae nor Rosalie were
the partners she would naturally have chosen in any enterprise, but
circumstances had thrown them together that day, and Patty was an
obliging soul. Also, her natural common sense was wandering; she was
still under the spell of the Egyptian sorceress.

They discussed the new society for several minutes more, until they
heard the murmur of Miss Lord's voice, bidding Mademoiselle goodnight.

"There's Lordy!" Patty whispered warily. "I think you'd better to go to
bed. We can plan the rest in the morning."

"Yes, let's," said Rosalie, with a shiver. "I'm freezing!"

"But we must first take the vow," insisted Mae Mertelle. "We ought
really to do it at midnight--but maybe half-past ten will do as well.
I've got it all planned. You two say it after me."

They joined hands and whispered in turn:

"I most solemnly promise to keep secret the name and object of this
society; and if I break this oath, may I become freckled and bald and
squint-eyed and pigeon-toed, now and forever more."

The three members of the S. A. S. devoted their leisure during the next
few days to a careful study of the work on Beauty; and painstakingly set
about putting its precepts into practice. Some of these seemed
perplexingly at variance. The hair, for example, was to be exposed to
air and sunlight, but the face was not. They cleverly circumvented this
difficulty however. The week's allowance went for chamois-skin. During
every recreation hour, they retired to an airy knoll in the lower
pasture, and sat in a patient row, with hair streaming in the wind, and
faces protected by homemade masks.

One afternoon, a li