ext.

"Uncle William, would she have got Uncle Cyril if Aunt Marie hadn't
nabbed him first?"

"Kate!" The word was a chorus of dismay this time.

Mrs. Hartwell struggled to her feet.

"Come, come, Kate, we must go up-stairs--to bed," she stammered.

The little girl drew back indignantly.

"To bed? Why, mama, I haven't had my supper yet!"

"What? Oh, sure enough--the lights! I forgot. Well, then, come up--to
change your dress," finished Mrs. Hartwell, as with a despairing look
and gesture she led her young daughter from the room.

CHAPTER XIV. M. J. MAKES ANOTHER MOVE

Billy came down-stairs on the thirteenth of December to find everywhere
the peculiar flatness that always follows a day which for weeks has been
the focus of one's aims and thoughts and labor.

"It's just as if everything had stopped at Marie's wedding, and there
wasn't anything more to do," she complained to Aunt Hannah at the
breakfast table. "Everything seems so--queer!"

"It won't--long, dear," smiled Aunt Hannah, tranquilly, as she buttered
her roll, "specially after Bertram comes back. How long does he stay in
New York?"

"Only three days; but I'm just sure it's going to seem three weeks,
now," sighed Billy. "But he simply had to go--else he wouldn't have
gone."

"I've no doubt of it," observed Aunt Hannah. And at the meaning
emphasis of her words, Billy laughed a little. After a minute she said
aggrievedly:

"I had supposed that I could at least have a sort of 'after the ball'
celebration this morning picking up and straightening things around.
But John and Rosa have done it all. There isn't so much as a rose
leaf anywhere on the floor. Of course most of the flowers went to
the hospital last night, anyway. As for Marie's room--it looks as
spick-and-span as if it had never seen a scrap of ribbon or an inch of
tulle."

"But--the wedding presents?"

"All carried down to the kitchen and half packed now, ready to go over
to the new home. John says he'll take them over in Peggy this afternoon,
after he takes Mrs. Hartwell's trunk to Uncle William's."

"Well, you can at least go over to the apartment and work," suggested
Aunt Hannah, hopefully.

"Humph! Can I?" scoffed Billy. "As if I could--when Marie left strict
orders that not one thing was to be touched till she got here. They
arranged everything but the presents before the wedding, anyway; and
Marie wants to fix those herself after she gets back. Mercy! Aunt
Hannah, if