"You'd better hold your temper!" retorted Eve. "Pshaw! what's the use of being so silly as to quarrel over a Miss Nobody?" cried Gertie, stamping her pretty slippered foot. "Guess what else is the news." "Haven't I told you I despise guessing?" cried Bess, angrily. "It is not good form to insist upon a person's guessing--please remember it." "Write it down on ice," said Eve, _sotto voce_, mimicking her elder sister's tone. "Well," said Gertie, with a look of triumph, "I drove over to Mrs. Lyon's yesterday to see how everything was progressing for that contemplated marriage, and, lo! she informs me the wedding is postponed for the present, and Rex--handsome Rex--is coming home alone." "No--o!" cried both the sisters in chorus. Bess sat bolt upright, and Eve danced around the room clapping her hands. "I don't think much of a marriage which has been postponed," said Bess, a bright spot glowing on both of her cheeks. "Who knows but what one of us may have a chance of winning handsome Rex Lyon, after all? He is certainly a golden prize!" "'Don't count the chickens,' etc.," quoted Eve, saucily. "Gertrude!" said Bess, severely, "you will learn after awhile never to speak before Eve. She is as liable to do mischief as her namesake was in the Garden of Eden." "You ought never to go back on your own sex," retorted Eve, banging the door after her as she quitted the room, Rover, an ugly-looking mastiff, closely following at her heels. "That is certainly an astonishing piece of news," said Bess, reflectively, smoothing out the folds of her white cashmere morning wrapper. "Now, here's a plan for you, Gertie. Find out his address in some way, and we will write to him on some pretext or other. Rex has probably quarreled with the haughty heiress of Whitestone Hall, and one of us ought certainly to catch his heart in the rebound. Send him an invitation to your birthday party, Gertie." "I would be more likely to succeed than you, Bess," said Gertie, rocking complacently to and fro, and looking maliciously at her sister. "You remember he once remarked he did not like tall ladies, and you are certainly tall, Bess." "Well, I'd rather be tall and willowy and graceful, than short and fat and dumpy," jerked out Bess, spitefully. "What! at swords' points yet, eh? Ha, ha, ha!" cried Eve, suddenly, popping her head in at the door. "I'll be back after awhile to see which one of you gets the best of it." Before either of the sisters had time to reply, the family carriage dashed suddenly up to the porch, and a moment later a slight, dark-robed little figure was ushered into their presence. "This is Miss Brooks, mum," said Jim, the coachman, addressing the elder sister. "I'd like to know why you have brought her in here?" cried Bess, angrily. "Why did you not take her into the servants' hall or into the kitchen?" But Jim had disappeared.