an
arrangement.

"Then I will bring him up to-morrow evening, equipped in that manner,
and introduce him as my cousin, Captain--Captain--Captain--what shall I
call him?--Captain Robert Slivers--that will be a good name enough--of
the Sickles Brigade, wounded in one of the late battles and home on
furlough. Don't you think that will do, dear?"

"I should like it, of all things in the world," said Emily Owen, "if I
was only sure that they would not know him. But no--to-morrow evening
will not do! I remember hearing that hateful Colonel Bancker tell Pa
that he was coming again to-morrow evening."

"Well, all that is none the worse," said the schemer. "If the gallant
Colonel is as old as you think, his eyes cannot be any sharper than
other people's; and if your Frank Wallace is half smart enough to
deserve such a pretty girl as you, he can manufacture some war stories
that will do the Colonel good."

"But I am afraid--" again began Emily.

"Afraid of your shadow!" said the plotter. "There, run away and do as I
tell you, and mind that your note goes this afternoon and that you do
not forget to put in my card. Stop! you are not afraid to trust me with
him, are you?"

"Oh, Josephine, you ought to be ashamed to ask such a question!" replied
Emily; and having given that assurance, and being really carried off her
feet by the plausible mischief of her friend, she set about performing
her part of the arrangement, though not without some question how it
would all end, and whether the frolic might not eventually give excuse
for additional severity on the part of Judge Owen.

It was agreed between the young girls, before they parted, that the
arrival should not take place until evening, when there would be the
advantage of gas-light in concealing the personality of the
masquerader,--and that Aunt Martha, who had already proved herself too
firm and consistent a friend to her niece, to be played falsely with in
the matter, should be made acquainted with the whole arrangement, even
at the risk of the disapprobation that she was almost certain to express
against a proceeding that would certainly be better suited to the stage
than the drawing-room.

Having set this mischief on foot and shaken off the ennui which had
oppressed her in the morning, Josephine Harris left the house where she
had paid so remarkable a first visit, and returned to her own, to
astonish her mother with the knowledge of an intended prank somewhat
more rec