onger.
Aunt Isabel had only had an "upset."

Deeply stirred, Missy withdrew her hand.

"I think I forgot to open my bed to air," she said, and hurried away to
her own room. But, oblivious of the bed, she stood for a long time at
the window, staring out at nothing.

Yes; Romance had died out in the Middle Ages...

She was still standing there when the maid called her to the telephone.
It was Raleigh Peters on the wire, asking to take her to the dance that
night. She accepted, but without enthusiasm. Where were the thrills she
had expected to experience while receiving the homage paid a visiting
girl? He was just a grocery clerk named Peters!

Yes; Romance had died out in the Middle Ages...

She felt very blase as she hung up the receiver.

CHAPTER V. IN THE MANNER OF THE DUCHESS

It was raining--a gentle, trickling summer rain, when, under a heap of
magazines near a heavenly attic window, Missy and Tess came upon the
paper-backed masterpieces of "The Duchess."

The volume Missy chanced first to select for reading was entitled "Airy
Fairy Lilian." The very first paragraph was arresting:

Down the broad oak staircase--through the silent hall--into the
drawing-room runs Lilian, singing as she goes. The room is deserted;
through the half-closed blinds the glad sunshine is rushing, turning to
gold all on which its soft touch lingers, and rendering the large, dull,
handsome apartment almost comfortable...

"Broad oak staircase"--"drawing-room"--"large, dull, handsome
apartment"--oh, wonderful!

Then on to the description of the alluring heroine:

... the face is more than pretty, it is lovely--the fair, sweet,
childish face, framed in by its yellow hair; her great velvety eyes, now
misty through vain longing, are blue as the skies above her; her nose
is pure Greek; her forehead low, but broad, is partly shrouded by little
wandering threads of gold that every now and then break loose from
bondage, while her lashes, long and dark, curl upward from her eyes,
as though hating to conceal the beauty of the exquisite azure within...
There is a certain haughtiness about her that contrasts curiously but
pleasantly with her youthful expression and laughing, kissable mouth.
She is straight and lissome as a young ash tree; her hands and feet are
small and well-shaped; in a word, she is chic from the crown of her fair
head down to her little arched instep...

Missy sighed; how wonderful it must be to be a creature