erful rose-pink lent a glow to her cheeks, and
pleasure and expectancy brightened her eyes, and left her a-tingle with
these new sensations.

"You'll be the feature of the occasion," Mrs. Sherman assured her. "Come
up to lunch with us Thursday. We'll powder your hair and help you dress,
and take you down in the carriage with us. Tell your sisters that we'll
see that you get home safely that night."

So to the other pleasures of the twenty-second was added the
undreamed-of delight of being invited out to lunch, and forgetting for
awhile that there were such tiresome things in the world as
sewing-machines and endless ruffling for other people. Although she wore
her old brown dress, darned at the elbows, and, with her usual timidity,
scarcely ventured a remark at the table unless directly questioned, she
was all aglow with the new experience.

Afterward it was easy to talk and laugh with Lloyd, as they went through
the conservatory cutting the flowers which were to decorate the tables
at The Beeches. Hyacinths and lilies-of-the-valley made a spring-time of
their own under the sheltering skylight. Agnes bent over them with a cry
of delight. "They make you forget the calendar, don't they?" she said,
looking shyly up at Lloyd. She wanted to add, "And so do you. You make
me forget that I am ten years older than you. It seems only pussy-willow
time by my feelings to-day." But their friendship was too new as yet for
such personal speeches.

As they went back to the drawing-room with a basket piled full of
hothouse blooms, Mrs. Sherman called to Lloyd that she needed her
up-stairs a few moments. Hastily excusing herself, she left Agnes with a
new magazine for her entertainment. When she came down later, the
magazine was lying uncut on the table, and Agnes, seated in front of the
piano, was fingering the keys with light touches which made no sound,
they pressed the ivory so gently. She started guiltily as Lloyd came in.

"I couldn't help it!" she stammered. "It drew me over here like a
magnet. It has been the dream of my life to know how to play, but it is
all such a mystery. I've puzzled over the music in the hymn-book many a
time, the little notes flying up and down like birds through a fence,
and then watched Miss Allison's fingers on the organ keys, going up and
down the same way."

"It is just as easy as reading the alphabet," said Lloyd. "I'll show
you. Wait till I find my old music primer. It is somewhere in this
cab