me. He had no dress, so I lent him mine, till just before the masks
were taken off, when we cut home and changed. He told me how you
kept running to him to tie up your slippers, find your fan, and tell
him funny things, thinking it was me. I never enjoyed anything so
much in my life."

"Go on," said Dolly in a breathless sort of voice, and the deluded
boy obeyed.

"I knew Bopp, and hovered near till he came to find out who I was. I
took you off in style, and it deceived him, for I'm only an inch or
two taller than you, and kept my head down in the lackadaisical way
you girls do; I whispered, so my voice didn't betray me; and was
very clinging, and sweet, and fluttery, and that blessed old goose
was sure it was you. I thought it was all over once, for when he
came the heavy in the recess, I got a bit flustered, he was so
serious about it, my mask slipped, but I caught it, so he only saw
my eyes and forehead, which are just like yours, and that finished
him, for I've no doubt I looked as red and silly as you would have
done in a like fix."

"Why did you say No?" and Dolly looked as stern as fate.

"What else should I say? You told me you wouldn't have him, and I
thought it would save you the bother of saying it, and him the pain
of asking twice. I told him some time ago that you were a born
flirt; he said he knew it; so I was surprised to hear him go on at
such a rate, but supposed that I was too amiable, and that misled
him. Poor old Bopp, I kept thinking of him all night, as he looked
when he said, 'They told me you had no heart, now I believe it, and