The ruse worked, and a smile forced its way through Grace's discontent.
Then a sudden thought struck her and the smile flickered and went out
altogether.

"It was Roy's parting gift," she said, striving to speak lightly, though
her voice trembled ever so little. "You know, Betty," she said in a rare
burst of confidence, "I never had the slightest idea I could feel so
really b-bad--" her eyes filled and she brushed her hand across them
impatiently.

"Am I not a goose?" she asked plaintively, and Betty, trying to laugh,
choked, too, and abandoned the attempt.

Then they both smiled, an April sort of uncertain smile and went in to
breakfast.

"I guess," remarked Betty whimsically, just as Mollie and Amy ran down the
stairs and into the room, "that we're fast becoming what you said you were
the other day, Gracie--a regular flock of geese!"




CHAPTER XVI

SPARRING FOR TIME


The roads were muddy from the heavy rain that had fallen over night, but