ut I have so many engagements, I really couldn't manage
it till to-day. So glad you are alone, for mamma said I could sit
awhile, and I brought my lace-work to show you, for it's perfectly
lovely." cried Miss Blish, greeting Rose with a kiss, which was not very
warmly returned, though Rose politely thanked her for coming, and bid
Phebe roll up the easy chair.

"How nice to have a maid!" said Ariadne, as she settled herself with
much commotion. "Still, dear, you must be very lonely, and feel the need
of a bosom friend."

"I have my cousins," began Rose, with dignity, for her visitor's
patronising manner ruffled her temper.

"Gracious, child! you don't make friends of those great boys, do you?
Mamma says she really doesn't think it's proper for you to be with them
so much."

"They are like brothers, and my aunts do think it's proper," replied
Rose, rather sharply, for it struck her that this was none of Miss
Blish's business.

"I was merely going to say I should be glad to have you for my bosom
friend, for Hatty Mason and I have had an awful quarrel, and don't
speak. She is too mean to live, so I gave her up. Just think, she never
paid back one of the caramels I've given her, and never invited me to
her party. I could have forgiven the caramels, but to be left out in
that rude way was more than I could bear, and I told her never to look
at me again as long as she lived."

"You are very kind, but I don't think I want a bosom friend, thank you,"
said Rose, as Ariadne stopped to bridle and shake her flaxen head over
the delinquent Hatty Mason.

Now, in her heart Miss Blish thought Rose "a stuck-up puss," but
the other girls wanted to know her and couldn't, the old house was a
charming place to visit, the lads were considered fine fellows, and
the Campbells "are one of our first families," mamma said. So Ariadne
concealed her vexation at Rose's coolness, and changed the subject as
fast as possible.

"Studying French, I see; who is your teacher?" she asked, flitting over
the leaves of "Paul and Virginia," that lay on the table.

"I don't study it, for I read French as well as English, and uncle and
I often speak it for hours. He talks like a native, and says I have a
remarkably good accent."

Rose really could not help this small display of superiority, for French
was one of her strong points, and she was vain of it, though she usually
managed to hide this weakness. She felt that Ariadne would be the better
for a