Mrs. Meredith whisked off her kitchen apron, slipped a white ruffled one over her dark print dress, and appeared at the door just in time to hear a musical voice saying, kindly: "Good-afternoon, Lina--ah, good-afternoon, Mrs. Meredith." CHAPTER II. The new-comer was Violet Earle, a girl scarcely older than Jaquelina, but taller, better dressed, and exquisitely lovely. She was fair as a lily, with soft, languishing blue eyes, and golden curls falling in beautiful luxuriance upon her graceful shoulders. A cool, tasteful costume of blue and white lawn, with pale-blue ribbons fluttering here and there, lent an artistic grace to her appearance that made Jaquelina shrink into herself upon the doorstep, feeling dowdy, miserable and commonplace by the contrast. Jaquelina knew no one on earth whom she envied so much as this fair and self-possessed young lady--the petted, only daughter of the wealthiest man in the county. "Good-afternoon, Miss Earle. Will you walk into the sitting-room?" inquired Mrs. Meredith, a little flustered by the lovely young visitor's appearance. She led the way to the little sitting-room where the baby slumbered peacefully still, and they sat down, Jaquelina with her slim finger between the pages of her book. "Lina, I have come to invite you to a party to-morrow night," Violet said, graciously. Jaquelina's brune face flushed, her scarlet lips trembled with pleasure. "My brother and one of his classmates are come from college for a visit, and mamma is going to give us a party. Will you come, Lina?" Jaquelina glanced at Mrs. Meredith. "Yes, if Aunt Meredith will permit me," she answered, frankly. "Of course she will," Violet said, looking at the hostess, who frowned slightly as she said, almost bruskly: "Lina has nothing fit to wear to a party." Lina's sensitive cheeks turned crimson, but Miss Earle only laughed. "Everyone says _that_ when invited to a party," she observed lightly. "It was what I said about myself, when mamma first named the party this morning. But you see, after all, this will only be a kind of impromptu party--a lawn party. We will have Chinese lanterns and colored lamps hung in the trees, and refreshments served out of doors, and games, you know." "Yes," said Lina, and her cheeks glowed, and her eyes beamed. She forgot the embarrassing sense of dowdiness that often overwhelmed her in Miss Earle's elegant presence, and sat up straight, and forgot to draw her shabby little slippers under her chair. There was a great deal of dainty, untutored grace in the slim figure, and Violet, who was inclined to patronize the shy orphan girl, decided to herself that Lina Meredith would be rather a pretty girl if only she were not so tanned, and if only her uncle and aunt would dress her decently.