w her with the combined virtues of Portia, Rebecca,
Ellen Douglas, Grace Darling, Flora Macdonald, and the "Nut-brown Maid",
without stopping to put the various qualities to the test, and make sure
that they actually existed. It is always better to err on the right
side, and think too highly than too ill of people, but Mabel's mistake
was to take Aldred so utterly on trust, and to blind herself wilfully to
the many small indications of character that might easily have shown her
that her idol was very far from perfection.

Aldred could not feel easy until she had made sure that the snapshot
portrait was not to be included in the next number of the Magazine. She
was afraid Mabel might break her promise, and send a copy
surreptitiously to her cousin, and then the mischief would be done. She
did not dare to mention the matter at head-quarters; it would appear
conceited on her part to suggest that the idea had been broached, and
she would feel very humiliated if Miss Drummond were to say: "Oh, no, my
dear! I never dreamt of putting it in!"

A plan occurred to her, however, by which she could defeat her friend's
too enthusiastic project. She borrowed the negative from Dora on the
pretence of wanting to look at it, and in handing it back managed to
drop it and step on it, breaking it beyond all chance of repair. She
apologized profusely for the accident.

"It was most clumsy of me!" she declared. "Could we possibly patch it up
again, do you think?"

"No, we couldn't!" said the aggrieved Dora. "It would show a mark right
across the face, however carefully we joined it. I've tried piecing
negatives together before, and they're not worth the trouble of
printing."

"Well, it was only a picture of me, not the lovely one you took of Miss
Drummond and Mademoiselle."

"No; I'm glad it was not that. But I promised this to Mabel; she asked
me last night if I could find it, and I've had such a hunt through all
my negatives! She'll be quite cross that it's broken."

"You must put the blame on me, then, for it was my fault."

Secretly Aldred was exultant.

"I know Dora only took one print from it," she said to herself, "and
that was spoilt in the fixing bath. It's impossible to take snapshots in
midwinter, so I believe I'm safe for the present. I shall discourage
Mabel strongly from buying a camera. I hope she won't get one given to
her on her birthday! I'm glad her Cousin Marion has gone to Germany, so
that she won't meet Mabel