e morning she went back to Sunbridge. At the house she found Miss
Chick ill. Her cold, and her fright over Genevieve, had sent her into a
high fever; and Mrs. Kennedy was scarcely less ill herself.

Certainly it was not exactly a cheerful Christmas Day for the one whose
heedlessness had brought it all about. But Genevieve mourned so
bitterly, and blamed herself so strongly, that at last, out of sheer
pity, Mrs. Kennedy, and even Miss Jane Chick, had to turn comforter;
for--as Mrs. Kennedy reminded her sister--it was, after all, aside from
her thoughtless lack of haste, only Genevieve's unselfish forgetfulness
of her own possible wants that led to the whole thing. Then, and not
until then, did Genevieve bestow some attention upon her Christmas
presents, of which there were a generous number.

Fortunately no one outside the house had known of Genevieve's
nonappearance that Christmas Eve, so she was spared any curious
questions and interested comments from others of the Happy Hexagons.

The short Christmas vacation sped rapidly. The young people spent much
of it on the river, skating, when the ice was good. Genevieve, it is
true, was not often seen there. Genevieve was playing nurse these days,
and so devotedly attentive to Miss Jane Chick was she, that both the
ladies had almost to scold her, in order to make her take needed
exercise. Even Harold Day reproached her one morning, when he met her
coming from the post-office.

"You don't let any of us see anything of you--not anything," he
complained. "And you look as if you were doing penance, or
something--you've got such a superior expression!"

Genevieve dimpled into a sudden laugh.

"Maybe I am," she retorted. "Maybe I did something bad so I could do
something good; and now I'm trying to do enough good to take out all the
taste of the bad."

"Well, what do you mean by that, Miss Mystery?"

She would not tell him. She only shook her head saucily, and ran into
the house.

By New Year's Day Miss Jane seemed almost like her old self, and
Genevieve was specially happy, for on that night Harold Day gave the
first dance of the season; and, with Miss Jane better, and her own heart
lighter once more, she could give herself up to full enjoyment of the
music, fun, and laughter.

All the Happy Hexagons were there, together with O. B. J. Holmes,
Charlie Brown, and many other of the young people, including even Tilly
Mack's big brother, Howard, who--though quite twenty-one