the white mull, and the white hat, and look very girly-girly."

"My eye-glasses make me look like a school-teacher playing baby,"
Nina said, gloomily. Harriet laughed, dazed, but not ungrateful to
find that she could laugh and speak at all.

"He's come back!" she said in her heart. "My darling child, you
aren't going to wear your glasses!" she assured Nina, aloud. "Not
if you have to have a dog and a cane! Not if you fall into the
fountain!"

"I shall be scared stiff!" Nina grumbled, coming out with her
Spanish books. Harriet, distracted for a moment, came to lean over
her shoulder, and the terror of half an hour ago began to flood
her soul and mind again. She went out to the porch, and looked
down into the clear shade of the early twilight, under the trees.
The terrace was deserted; every sign of the tea-party had
vanished, not a crumb marred the order of the grass-grown bricks.
The chairs held formal attitudes, the table was empty. All the
motor-cars were gone from the drive. She turned back into the
room, breathing more easily.

At half-past seven she came up from a little diplomatic adjusting
in the service end of the house, to peep at Nina, who was reading
in bed, and to go on to Isabelle's room. If Mrs. Carter was alone,
she liked to see Harriet then, to be sure of any last message, or
to discuss any domestic plan.

Harriet found her, exquisite in twinkling black spangles, before
her mirror. Isabelle's hair was dressed in dark and shining waves