fortably as if they had been on the
most intimate terms of friendship for years, and it was only Nan's
sense of her responsibility as hostess that dragged her away at last.

"Miss Blake will wonder where we are. Won't you come into the other
room? Besides you can't enjoy being cooped up in this little corner
when the fun is going on outside."

"Oh, but we do enjoy it!" protested Ruth. "It's giving us a chance to
get acquainted with you. And we want you to promise us that you'll go
skating with us day after to-morrow. Please do!"

"Of course we know how you skate," declared Louie, "and we'll be so
proud to have such a champion in our club. Say you'll come! And don't
hold it against us that we haven't asked you before."

Nan's heart leaped. "Why, I'll love to," she said with a frankness
equal to Louie's own, adding in a tone quite new to her, "if Miss Blake
will let me."

Grace Ellis and Mary Brewster lifted their eyebrows in surprise as the
three girls appeared in the doorway, chatting so intimately and being
so plainly on the best of terms.

"Dear me!" whispered Grace, "what's come over Lu and Ruth? They
actually look as if they liked her."

"Don't you believe it," declared Mary sourly. "They're here at her
party and they can't exactly shove her off in her own house, but it
will be 'for one night only.' Now you see! They won't want her around
now any more than they have before--a rowdyish thing like that."

She had scarcely replaced her bitter expression by one more suited to
the time and place when Louie came over to where they were, her face
wreathed in smiles, and her arm flung impulsively around Nan's waist.

"O girls!" she cried. "Isn't it nice? Ruth and I have made Nan
promise that she'll come skating with us day after to-morrow, and she's
going to join the club. Won't it put a feather in our cap to have such
a member?"

Mary knit her brows and Grace smiled icily.

"Very nice," they responded coldly.

Nan's eyes flashed, and then suddenly lowered. "Oh! I didn't give a
definite promise," she returned quietly, and with unexpected dignity.
"I said if Miss Blake would let me. I'm afraid she won't. I hurt my
ankle not long ago, and I haven't dared exercise it much since.
Probably Miss Blake will think I ought to save it for a while yet."

"But you were out on Saturday," protested Ruth. "I saw you. Your
ankle is only an excuse. You skate so easily, it couldn't be a strain."

Grace