afternoon would bring, and so she perched herself upon the fence where
nothing but ants could molest her, and finished the bouquets which
Fanny hung upon the trees until the lower limbs seemed one mass of
blossoms and the air was filled with the sweet perfume.

Lucy was bewitchingly beautiful that afternoon in her dress of white,
her curls tied up with a blue ribbon, and her fair arms bare nearly to
the shoulders. Fanny, whose arms were neither plump nor white, had
expostulated with her cousin upon this style of dress, suggesting that
one as delicate as she could not fail to take a heavy cold when the
dews began to fall, but Lucy would not listen. Arthur Leighton had
told her once that he liked her with bare arms, and bare they should
be. She was bending every energy to please and captivate him, and a
cold was of no consequence provided she succeeded. So, like some
little fairy, she danced and flitted about, making fearful havoc with
Dr. Bellamy's wits and greatly vexing Fanny, who hailed with delight
the arrival of Mrs. Meredith and Anna. The latter was very pretty and
very becomingly attired in a light airy dress of blue, finished at the
throat and wrists with an edge of soft, fine lace. She, too, had
thought of Arthur in the making of her toilet, and it was for him that
the white rosebuds were placed in her heavy braids of hair and
fastened on her belt. She was very sorry that she had allowed herself
to be vexed with Lucy Harcourt for her familiarity with Mr. Leighton,
very hopeful that he had not observed it, and very certain now of his
preference for herself. She would be very gracious that afternoon, she
thought, and not one bit jealous of Lucy, though she called him Arthur
a hundred times.

Thus it was in the most amiable of moods that Anna appeared upon the
lawn, where she was warmly welcomed by Lucy, who, seizing both her
hands, led her away to see the arrangements, chatting gayly all the
time, and casting rapid glances up the lane, as if in quest of some
one.

"I'm so glad you've come. I've thought of you so much. Do you know it
seems to me there must be some bond of sympathy between us, or I
should not like you so well at once? I drove by the rectory early this
morning--the dearest little place, with such a lovely garden. Arthur
was working in it, and I made him give me some roses. See, I have one
in my curls. Then, when he brought them to the carriage, I kept him
there while I asked numberless questions