lip, for he looked very quizzical. "Well," she went on, laughing, "I
suppose it didn't really all happen;--but it was ever so funny, Papa,
even if it was a make-up. And Imogen's just as good-natured as can be.
All the girls like her."

"Make-ups are all very well," said Papa, "as long as people don't try to
make you believe they are true. When they do that, it seems to me it
comes too near the edge of falsehood to be very safe or pleasant. If I
were you, Katy, I'd be a little shy of swearing eternal friendship for
Miss Clark. She may be good-natured, as you say, but I think two or
three years hence she won't seem so nice to you as she does now. Give me
a kiss, Chick, and run away, for there's Alexander with the buggy."




CHAPTER VII

COUSIN HELEN'S VISIT


A little knot of the school-girls were walking home together one
afternoon in July. As they neared Dr. Carr's gate, Maria Fiske
exclaimed, at the sight of a pretty bunch of flowers lying in the middle
of the sidewalk:

"Oh my!" she cried, "see what somebody's dropped! I'm going to have it."
She stooped to pick it up. But, just as her fingers touched the stems,
the nosegay, as if bewitched, began to move. Maria made a bewildered
clutch. The nosegay moved faster, and at last vanished under the gate,