partially hidden the player's face was lowered. What--what--it was not
Tilly, but--but--that girl! How did she come there? A glance at Will's
face drawn up into a most exasperating grin, at Will's eyes darting
forth gleams of fun, was enough for Agnes.

Yes, this was Will Wentworth's doing,--this hateful plot to humiliate
her and triumph over her. Stung by this thought, she lost sight for that
moment of everything else, and the ball sent so surely back to her
dropped to the ground before her partner could rescue it. An exclamation
of disappointment from Tom added to her discomfiture; and when Will, the
next instant, cried, "Wait a minute, till I get another racket, Miss
Smith has broken hers," Agnes, flinging down her own, exclaimed,--

"Miss Smith can have my racket; I'm not going to play any longer!"

"Not going to play? What do you mean?" shouted Will.

"I mean that I am not used to a surprise-party and to playing with
strangers," was the rude and angry answer.

"You--you ought to--" But Will controlled himself and stopped. He was
about to say, "You ought to be ashamed of yourself."

Agnes, however, understood by the tone of his voice something of what he
meant, and turned scornfully away, her head up, and with a glance at Tom
that plainly showed she expected him to follow her.

But Tom made no movement of that kind. He stood where he was, looking
across at Will, who, red and ashamed, had approached Miss Smith, and was
evidently making some sort of apology to her for the insult that had