mischievous eyes.

Miss Virginia grew impatient. It was out of all reason that such
desirable things should be brought almost to her door and yet be
beyond her reach.

"It wouldn't be giving them much encouragement just to look in the
window," observed Charlotte. "I'll tell you," she cried the next
minute, "opera glasses!"

"My _dear_, look at my neighbors through an opera glass?"

"But they _want_ to be looked at," insisted Charlotte, with
unanswerable logic.

Miss Virginia allowed herself to be persuaded, and, securely
entrenched behind the lace curtain, she levelled her glass. As is ever
the case with one who dallies with temptation, the result was an
increased desire to have that pillow in her hands.

Standing absorbed in contemplation, she suddenly, without intending
it, turned her gaze upon one of the upper windows; and as she did so
the muslin draperies parted and a pair of merry eyes belonging to a
pretty face looked straight into hers.

"I beg your pardon," cried Miss Virginia, dropping her glass and
sinking into a chair, "I shall be ashamed of this to my dying day,"
she groaned, while Charlotte went off into fits of laughter.

It was some time before she could be brought to realize she had not
been seen. "Not that that makes it much better," she added contritely.
"And, Charlotte, don't mention it to your Aunt Caroline. I think my
ideas of propriety are as strict as hers, but I do not succeed so well
in living up to them. I fear I am, as she says, childish."

"I shall not say anything about it, and I am sure I think you are very
nice, Aunt Virginia," answered Charlotte, still laughing.

The suspicion that Charlotte liked her better than she did Caroline
was a secret pleasure to Miss Virginia, and she flushed prettily as
she said, "Thank you, dear; I am far from what I should be."

Charlotte went to take her music lesson; Mrs. Millard was attending a
club meeting; the house was very quiet as Miss Virginia sat down to
her embroidery. While she worked, the face so vividly imprinted on her
memory in that moment's view continued to rise before her. She began
to feel something like sympathy for its owner. She had not supposed it
would be such an attractive shop. What possible harm could there be in
going over just to look? She might even go in and explain to the
proprietor that she had made a mistake in coming into the
neighborhood. It would be a kindness. She could use a spool of
buttonhole twist as an