Evening arrived with a sunset of grandeur and glory. It made
everything look as beautiful as it should look on the occasion of a
festival. The beautiful and festive aspect of the world without, and
of, her heart within, made it difficult to eat supper. And after
supper it was hard to breathe naturally, to control her nervous
fingers as she dressed.

At last, with the help of mother and Aunt Nettie, her toilet was
finished: the pink-silk stockings and slippers shimmering beneath
the lengthened pink mull; the brocaded pink ribbon now become a
huge, pink-winged butterfly; and, mother's last touch, a pink
rosebud holding a tendril--a curling tendril--artfully above the
left ear! Missy felt a stranger to herself as, like some gracious
belle and fairy princess and airy butterfly all compounded into one,
she walked--no, floated down the stairs.

"Well!" exclaimed father, "behold the Queen of the Ball!" But Missy
did not mind his bantering tone. The expression of his eyes told her
that he thought she looked pretty.

Presently Mrs. Allen and Kitty, in the Allens' surrey, stopped by
for her. With them was a boy she had never seen before, a tall, dark
boy in a blue-grey braided coat and white duck trousers--a military
cadet!

He was introduced as Kitty's cousin, Jim Henley. Missy had heard
about this Cousin Jim who was going to visit Cherryvale some time
during the summer; he had arrived rather unexpectedly that day.