The girls evidently didn't think, but they sat down upon the bed, big-eyed and expectant. "Cross your hearts, hope to die?" They crossed their hearts and solemnly hoped they might perish if they revealed one word of what was coming. "You know Katharine Holland?" They did. "Awful stick," commented Laura May. Amelia flamed into vivid defence. "Nothing of the sort. I guess you'd be quiet too, Laura May Lee, if your heart was broken." With one impulse the girls on the bed drew their knees up to their chins and hugged them ecstatically. This was more than they had hoped for. [Illustration: "The girls on the bed drew their knees up to their chins"] "Yes, sir, broken," repeated Amelia emphatically. "How d'you know?" asked Kittie Dayton. "Never you mind. I know all about it." "She didn't tell you?" "No, she didn't tell me, but I know. She's madly in love with an enemy of her house." "Not really?" Laura May's tone was tremulous with interest. Kittie gave her knees an extra hug. "It's like Romeo and Juliet," she said. Kittie was a shining light in the English Literature classes. Satisfied with the impression she had made Amelia gathered her forces for continuous narrative. "You see, her folks have got lots of money, and she's their only child, but her father's an awful crank and her mother don't dare say her soul's her own." "Don't Katharine's father like her?" Amelia was annoyed. "If you'll keep still, Kittie, I'll tell you all about it. If you can't wait I won't tell you at all." Kittie subsided, and the story flowed on. "He adores her, but he's very stubborn, and there's a man he hates worse than poison. They had some sort of a business quarrel a long time ago, and Mr. Holland is as bitter as can be yet and never allows one of his family to speak to one of the other family. He said he'd shoot any Clark who stepped a foot on his grounds." Amelia's face was radiant with satisfaction. Her voice was hushed for dramatic effect. "There's a Clark boy," she went on; then, not pleased with the ring of her sentence, began again. "The hated enemy has a son." That was much better, and it gave her a good running start. "He's handsome as a prince, and perfectly lovely in every way." Miss Lucilla hadn't confided this fact to Miss Emmeline, but there are some things one knows instinctively, and Amelia believes in poetic license as applied to drama. "He's been away at school, but he came home last June, and he and Katharine got acquainted somewhere. She didn't dare tell her father she had met him, but she loved him desperately at first sight." Once more Miss Lucilla's bald facts were being elaborated. "Did he fall in love that way, too?" Kittie was athirst for detail.