r
own feelings toward Frank she was not at all sure. He was a good-looking
young fellow and no doubt stood well socially. At first she had felt a
little contempt for him, due to his complaints that he had hard work to
kill time. When she received the letter announcing his determination to
study law and become a useful man in the world she thought better of
him. When he came up in June it became clear that he was decidedly in
love with her, for none of Mother Eve's daughters are ever long in doubt
on that point. So self-evident were his feelings that she at that time
felt compelled to avoid giving him a chance to express them. Her heart
was and always had been entirely free from the pangs of love, and while
his devotion was in a way quite flattering, the one insurmountable
barrier was his family. Had he been more diplomatic he would never have
told her his mother frowned at him when he danced twice with a poor
girl; but unwisely he had; and to a girl of Alice's pride and
penetration, that was enough. "I am a poor girl," she thought, when he
made the admission, "but I'll wear old clothes all my life before his
haughty mother shall read him a lecture for dancing twice with me."

Ever since the day Mrs. Mears had related the village gossip to her, she
had thought a good many times about the cause of it, but to no one had
she ever mentioned the matter since. Her only associate, good-natured
Abby Miles, had never dared to speak of it, and Aunt Susan was wise
enough not to, for which Frank ought to have been grateful, and no doubt
would have been, had he known it. Now that he and his fashionable
sister were coming to Sandgate Alice felt a good deal worried. Firstly,
she knew her own stock of gowns was inadequate--no young woman,
especially if she be pretty, enjoys being overshadowed by another in the
matter of dress, and Alice was no exception. While not vain of her
looks,--and she had ample reason to be,--she yet felt his sister would
consider her countrified in dress, or else realize the truth that she
was painfully poor. She had made the money her brother gave her go as
far as possible--that was not far. Her own small salary was not more
than enough to pay current expenses, and had he known how hard she had
contrived to make one dollar do the work of two he would have pitied
her. When the day and train arrived, and she had ushered her two guests
into their rooms, her worry began. A trunk had come, and as she busied
herself