it, but the effort she made to be
cheerful made the next attempt easier, and presently she acknowledged to
herself that Mary was right. It did help, to swallow one's sobs.

After breakfast she stood at the window, watching her father drive away
to the station in the rain. As the carriage disappeared and there was
nothing more to watch, she wondered dully how she could spend the long
morning.

"Some one wants you at the telephone, Lloyd," called the Colonel, on his
way to his den.

"Oh, good! I hope it is Kitty," she exclaimed, anticipating a long visit
over the wire.

But it was Malcolm MacIntyre who had rung her up, to bid her good-bye.
He and Keith were about to start home. They had intended to go up to
Locust, he told her, for a short call before train time, but it was
raining too hard. Would she please make their adieus to her mother and
the rest of the family. He had heard that she was not going back to
school. Was it true? She was in luck. No? She was disappointed? Well,
that was too bad. He was awfully sorry. But she mustn't worry over
missing a few months of school. It wouldn't amount to much in the long
run. For his part, if he were a girl and didn't have to fit himself for
a profession, he would be glad to have such a postscript added to his
Christmas vacation. He'd noticed that usually the postscript to a girl's
letter had more in it than the letter itself. Possibly it would be that
way with her vacation. He hoped so.

Although it was in the most cordial tone that he expressed his regret at
her disappointment, and bade Princess Winsome good-bye until the "good
old summer-time," it was with a vague feeling of disappointment that
Lloyd hung up the receiver and turned away from the telephone.

"He doesn't undahstand at all!" she thought. "He hasn't the faintest
idea how much it means to me to give up school. He thinks that, because
I'm a girl, I haven't any ambition, and that it doesn't hurt me as it
would him. Maybe it wouldn't have sounded quite the same if I could have
seen him say it, but ovah the telephone, somehow--although he was mighty
nice and polite--it sounded sawt of patronizing."

She went into the library to deliver Malcolm's farewell messages to her
mother. "He seems so much moah grown up this time than he evah has
befoah," she added. "I don't like him half as much that way as the way
he used to be."

Mrs. Sherman was busy about the house all morning, so Lloyd found
entertainment followi