t more than I do. Adele Raymond, you
changed those pictures on purpose."

"It was only in fun, Bee. Truly, I did not mean it any other way. I
never dreamed that your father would come back just because of it."

"But you did know that if he thought the picture was mine he would think
I was pretty. How could he help it? It would give him a wrong idea of
how I looked, and when he came he would be disappointed. You knew that.
And then you ran out just as soon as you heard the carriage."

"I didn't do that on purpose anyway, Bee. I was singing, you know, when
I heard the wheels, and I ran out without thinking."

"But I heard Aunt Annie tell you to wait in the parlor until I had
greeted father," went on Bee accusingly. "You ran right out to the door
where the light would fall on you, so that he could not help but see you
first. It was done on purpose. I know it was. I'll never trust you again
in anything."

"I didn't think," said Adele again. "I didn't know that he was going to
take me for his daughter, even though I did send him my picture. Anyway
you ought to be glad that I sent it. He would not have come if I
hadn't."

"That's just it," uttered Bee with a pitiful sob. "If it were just a
mistake of the moment I could get over it, even though that would be bad
enough. But it's knowing that he poured over your picture, thinking that
it was his daughter. It's knowing that he was glad that you were
beautiful when I am not. It's knowing that it was for you that he came
home, and not for me at all. Oh! he never will care for an ugly old
thing like me now."

"Yes, he will. Everybody likes you best when they know us both for a
time. Then your mind--"

"Bother the mind!" ejaculated the other girl fiercely. "Mind doesn't
count. It's only being pretty that counts, and you know it, Adele
Raymond. Doesn't everyone indulge you just because you are pretty? And
now my father--and he's the only father I've got, too--now he's just
like everybody else. Oh, I hate you!"

"I don't want you to hate me, Bee," cried Adele, her own tears beginning
to flow. "You never cared before that I was pretty."

"I wouldn't care now if father didn't--didn't--" Bee broke down
completely, unable to finish.

"Won't you be friends, Bee?" pleaded Adele.

"No; I won't," answered Bee with decision.

"And won't you let me stay with you this Summer? I don't like grandma's.
It's poky there." Adele never once mentioned Bee's telling who had
changed the p