White? How pretty she is!"

"Think so? Yes, she is, now you mention it. We are considered very much
alike."

The girlish laughter, which he had been waiting for, rang out, and,
taking advantage of it, Dick coaxed her into a corner on the stairs,
where they could flirt to their hearts' content.

"I wonder whether you'd be offended if I told you that you were the
jolliest--I mean nicest--girl I've met?" said the young vagabond, with
an assumption of innocence and humility which robbed the remark of any
offense--at any rate, for his hearer, whose eyes sparkled.

"Not at all. And I wonder whether you'd mind if I told you that I think
you are the rudest and most--most audacious boy I ever met?"

"Not the least in the world, because it's no news--I mean that I'm--what
was it--the rudest and most audacious? I have a sister, you know, and
she deals in candor, candor in solid blocks. But what a mission my
condition opens up before you, Miss Angel!"

"A mission?" she asked reluctantly, young enough to know that she was
going to be caught somehow.

"Yes," he said, with demure gravity. "The mission of my reformation. If
you think me so bad to-night, I don't know, I really don't, what you
would have thought of me yesterday, before I had had the advantage of
your elevating society. Now, Miss Angel, here is a chance for you--the
great chance of your life! Continue your elevating influence. Your
cousin has asked me to a rabbit shoot to-morrow."

"You'll shoot somebody. They really ought not to allow boys to carry
guns----"

"Who's rude now?" he asked, with a grin. "I was going to say, when you
interrupted me, that if you came out with the luncheon party, I should
have the opportunity of a lesson in--in deportment and manners. See?"

"I shouldn't think of coming," she declared promptly.

"Oh, yes, you will," he said teasingly, and with an air of conviction.
"Women always do what they wouldn't think of doing."

"Really!" she retorted, with mock indignation. "There is only one thing
I can do, and it is my duty. I shall tell your sister----Oh, look!" she
broke off suddenly, and with something like dismay in her voice, as she
pointed downward.

Dick leaned over, and saw Nell, sitting on an old oak bench just below
them. She was leaning back; her eyes were closed, and her face white.

"Oh, go to her; she is not well. I am so sorry! Go to her at once!"

Dick ran down the stairs, and the girl followed a step or two, then
st