s too romantic for
anything."

Isobel blushed and laughed and pushed them away. She knew that they all
envied her--she _wanted_ them to envy her. She knew that anyone of them
would gladly change places with her. Even Gyp and Jerry had sighed and
begged their mother to help them get up some sort of a play in which
they could take part. Gyp had asked Miss Gray to be allowed to help in
the make-up room, even if she did nothing more than pass the little jars
of cream and sticks of paint. And to Jerry had been assigned the
especial task of shoving Puck, who was sadly rattle-brained, upon the
stage, when the cues came.

[Illustration: GYP, JERRY, TIBBY, EVEN GRAHAM, SUPERINTENDED ISOBEL'S
PREPARATIONS FOR THE DRESS REHEARSAL]

The play was to be given on Saturday evening. On Friday evening a
full-dress rehearsal was called. Hermia's costume was finished and was
spread, in all its ravishing beauty, across the guest-room bed. On the
floor from beneath it peeped the slippers which had been made to order.

"It'll make all the others look cheap," declared Isobel, thrilling at
the pretty sight.

Mrs. Westley looked troubled. Certain doubts had been disturbing her
ever since that first moment of enthusiasm when she had yielded to
Isobel's coaxing. Isobel had said that the other girls were making their
own costumes--she knew that the faculty disliked any extravagance or
great expenditures of money in any of the school affairs--might it not
have been better to have helped Isobel fashion something simple and
pretty at home? Then when she watched Isobel's flushed, happy face,
radiantly pretty, she smothered her doubt.

"Pride goeth before a fall, daughter mine. Take care that your costume
doesn't make you forget your part," she laughed. After all, Isobel was
so pretty that she would outshine the others, anyway--let her costume be
ever so dowdy!

Gyp, Jerry, Tibby, even Graham, superintended Isobel's preparations for
the dress rehearsal. Gyp sat back on her heels and declared that Hermia
was "good enough to eat." Jerry thought so, too, though she had not the
courage to say so. Graham straddled the footboard of the bed and passed
scathing remarks concerning girls' "duds," but his eyes were proudly
admiring and in his pocket he treasured a ticket for the first row that
he had bought from another fellow at an advanced price. Isobel ready,
they all squeezed merrily into the automobile, taking care not to crush
the rose-pink finery,