He joined the others on the porch and conducted a very creditable flirtation with Miss Edith until visitors began to arrive, and the big bowl of eggnog was set in the middle of the dining-room table and banked with holly. After dark they went into town and watched the fireworks on the green surrounding the school-house. Holly walked ahead with Julian, and Winthrop thought he had never seen her in better spirits. She almost seemed to avoid him that evening, but that was perhaps only his fancy. Returning, there were only Holly and Julian and Winthrop, for Miss Bartram and the Bursons returned to their homes and the Major had been left at Waynewood playing bezique with Miss India. For awhile the conversation lagged, but Winthrop set himself the task of being agreeable to Julian and by the time they reached the house that youth had thawed out and was treating Winthrop with condescending friendliness. Winthrop left the young pair on the porch and joined the Major and Miss India in the parlor, watching their play and hiding his yawns until the Major finally owned defeat. XI. Holly had grown older within the last two months, although no one but Aunt India realized it. It was as though her eighteenth birthday had been a sharp line of division between girlhood and womanhood. It was not that Holly had altered either in appearance or actions; she was the same Holly, gay or serious, tender or tyrannical, as the mood seized her; but the change was there, even if Miss India couldn’t quite put her finger on it. Perhaps she was a little more sedate when she was sedate, a little more thoughtful at all times. She read less than she used to, but that was probably because there were fewer moments when she was alone. She was a little more careful of her attire than she had been, but that was probably because there was more reason to look well. Miss India felt the change rather than saw it.