Mrs. D'Arcy's, and can
get there very well by ourselves. All the same, we shall
be delighted to see you, if you will come down to the
boat.

Yours very truly,

EDITH JONES.

I must tell you what Ada said about our dresses, only pray
don't tell any of the officers. Of course we had to have a
consultation about our frocks, because everything in the
shops is boycotted for us. "Oh," said Ada, "there are the
gauze dresses we wore at Hacketstown _before the flood!_"
Only think of Ada and I at a ball with the Miss Noahs,
four or five thousand years ago.

Frank consented to go of course, but not without some little
difficulty. He didn't think it was a time for balls. According to his
view of things ginger should be no longer hot in the mouth.

"But why not?" said Edith. "If a ball at any time is a good thing,
why should it be bad now? Are we all to go into mourning, because
Mr. Carroll has so decreed? For myself I don't care twopence for the
ball. I don't think it is worth the ten shillings which it will cost.
But I am all for showing that we don't care so much for Mr. Carroll."

"Carroll is in prison," said Frank.

"Nor yet for Terry Lax, or Tim Brady, or Terry Carroll, or Tony
Brady. The world is not to be turned away from its proper course by
such a scum of men as that. Of course you'll do as a brother should
do, and come with us."

To this Frank assented, and on the next day went out for another
salmon, thinking no more about the party at Galway.

But the party at Galway was a matter of infinite trouble and infinite
interest to the two girls. Those dresses which had been put by from
before the flood were brought forth, and ironed, and re-ribboned, and
re-designed, as though the fate of heroes and heroines depended upon
them. And it was clearly intended that the fate of one hero and of
one heroine should depend on them, though nothing absolutely to that
effect was said at present between the sisters. It was not said, but
it was understood by both of them that it was so; and each understood
what was in the heart of the other. "Dear, dear Edith," said Ada.
"Let them boycott us as they will," said Edith, "but my pet shall
be as bright as any of them." There was a ribbon that had not been
tossed, a false flower that had on it something of the bloom of
newness. A faint offer was made by Ada to abandon some of these
prettinesses to her sister, but Edith would have none of them. Ed