"But, Janice, to think that we shall never know how it ended! I could n't sleep last night for hours, because I was so afraid that Amaryllis would n't have the opportunity to vindicate herself to--and 't would have been finished in another day." "And a proper punishment for naughty Tibbie Drinker it is," declared Miss Meredith, sitting up and assuming a judicially severe manner. "What do you mean, miss, by tempting good little Janice Meredith into reading a wicked romance on Sunday?" "'Good little Janice!'" cried Tibbie, contemptuously. "I could slap thee for that." But instead she threw her arms about Janice's neck and kissed her with such rapture and energy as to overbalance the judge from an upright position, and the two roiled over upon the bed laughing with anything but discretion, considering the nearness of their mentor. As a result a voice from a distance called sharply-- "Janice!" "O gemini!" cried the owner of that name, springing off the bed and beginning to unfasten her gown,--an example promptly followed by her room-mate. "Art thou dressing, child?" called the voice, after a pause. "Yes, mommy," answered Janice. Then she turned to her friend and asked, "Shall I wear my light chintz and kenton kerchief, or my purple and white striped Persian?" "Sufficiently smart for a country lass, Jan," cried her friend. "Don't call me country bred, Tibbie Drinker, just because you are a modish city girl." "And why not thy blue shalloon?" "'T is vastly unbecoming." "Janice Meredith! Can't thee let the men alone?" "I will when they will," airily laughed the girl. "Do unto others--" quoted Tabitha. "Then I will when thee sets me an example," retorted Janice, making a deep curtsey, the absence of drapery and bodice revealing the straightness and suppleness of the slender rounded figure, which still had as much of the child as of the woman in its lines. "Little thought they get from me," cried Tabitha, with a toss of her head. "'Tell me where is fancy bred, In the heart or in the head?'" hummed Janice. "Of course, one does n't think about men, Mistress Tabitha. One feels." Which remark showed perception of a feminine truth far in advance of Miss Meredith's years. "Unfeeling Janice!" "'T is a good thing for the oafs and ploughboys of Brunswick. For there are none better." "Philemon Hennion?"