nterfere,--though Cannie at times resisted, and declared that they
were pulling her hair and hurting her dreadfully,--for she was anxious
that the cousins should grow intimate and familiar with each other. In
fact, Cannie's shyness was quite shaken out of her for the moment; and
before the experiments were ended, and it was decided that a little bang
on the forehead, and what Marian called a "curly knot" behind, suited
her best, she felt almost at home with Georgie and Gertrude.

"There," said Georgie, sticking in a last hair-pin, "come and see
yourself; and if you don't confess that you are improved, you're a very
ungrateful young person, and that is all I have to say."

Candace scarcely knew her own face when she was led up to the
looking-glass. The light rings of hair lay very prettily on the
forehead, the "curly knot" showed the shape of the small head; it all
looked easy and natural, and as if it was meant to be so. She smiled
involuntarily. The girl in the glass smiled back.

"Why, I look exactly like somebody else and not a bit like myself," she
cried. "What _would_ Aunt Myra say to me?"

"I am going out to do some errands," said Mrs. Gray; "will you come
along, Cannie, and have a little drive?"

Mrs. Gray's errands seemed to be principally on behalf of her young
companion. First they stopped at Seabury's, and after Mrs. Gray had
selected a pair of "Newport ties" for herself, she ordered a similar
pair for Candace. Then she said that while Cannie's shoe was off she
might as well try on some boots, and Cannie found herself being fitted
with a slender, shapely pair of black kid, which were not only prettier
but more comfortable than the country-made ones which had made her foot
look so clumsy. After that they stopped at a carpet and curtain place,
where Cannie was much diverted at hearing the proprietor recommend
tassels instead of plated rings on certain Holland shades, for the
reason that "a tossel had more poetry about it somehow." Then, after a
brief pause to order strawberries and fresh lettuce, the carriage was
ordered to a milliner's.

"I want to get you a little hat of some sort," said Cousin Kate. "The
one you wore yesterday is rather old for a girl of your age. I will
retrim it some day, and it will do for picnics and sails, but you need
more hats than one in this climate, which is fatal to ribbons and
feathers, and takes the stiffness out of everything."

So a big, shady hat of dark red straw, wit