Such reasoning as this, with such personal attractions to
recommend it, admitted of but one reply. The queen waved her hand
graciously, and said, "Pull it out."

Is a lovely girl--whose face possesses the crowning charm of
expression, whose slightest movement reveals the supple symmetry
of her figure--less lovely because she is blessed with a good
appetite, and is not ashamed to acknowledge it? With a grace all
her own, Cecilia dived under the bed, and produced a basket of
jam tarts, a basket of fruit and sweetmeats, a basket of
sparkling lemonade, and a superb cake--all paid for by general
subscriptions, and smuggled into the room by kind connivance of
the servants. On this occasion, the feast was especially
plentiful and expensive, in commemoration not only of the arrival
of the Midsummer holidays, but of the coming freedom of Miss
Ladd's two leading young ladies. With widely different destinies
before them, Emily and Cecilia had completed their school life,
and were now to go out into the world.

The contrast in the characters of the two girls showed itself,
even in such a trifle as the preparations for supper.

Gentle Cecilia, sitting on the floor surrounded by good things,
left it to the ingenuity of others to decide whether the baskets
should be all emptied at once, or handed round
from bed to bed, one at a time. In the meanwhile, her lovely
blue eyes rested tenderly on the tarts.

Emily's commanding spirit seized on the reins of government, and