Of course there could be no trimming the vines and Trude's fingers itched for the task--not so much that she minded the unkempt growth as that she longed to be active out-of-doors. She had planned to plant another row of beans, too. The girls wouldn't poke fun at her when they ate fresh vegetables right out of a garden all of their own! But the ladies of the League must not find her, earth-stained and disheveled, in the garden on Saturday! "I'll have to change my dress. I forgot it was Saturday when I put this old thing on." "Vick, dear, you haven't taken your sketching things from Dad's desk," admonished Isolde a little frightenedly and Vicky jumped with a low whistle. "Good gracious! What if a High Lady Leaguer found _my_ truck on that sacred shrine!" She rushed off to the study. Trude having gone kitchenward with her dishes, Isolde and Sidney faced one another. Sidney grew awkwardly aware of a constraint in her sister's manner. She was regarding her with a curious hardness in her grave eyes. "You said you were sick of being different!" Isolde made Sidney's words sound childish. "Well--I don't know just how you can escape it--any more than the rest of us can. Look at me--look at Trude--" Then she shut her lips abruptly over what she had started to say. "What had you planned to do this morning, Sid?" "I told Nancy Stevens I'd go swimming with her though I don't much care whether I go or not." "Well--as long as you _have_ claimed a share in our little scheme of life, kitten--perhaps _you'd_ better receive the League visitors this morning. I have some letters to write and I want to dye that old silk. Don't forget to enter the date in the register!" With which astounding command Isolde walked slowly out of the room leaving Sidney with a baffled sense of--in spite of the promise of the Egg--having been robbed of something. CHAPTER II REBELLION Not the least of the dissatisfactions that had grown in Sidney's breast was belonging to an Estate. Since the death of Joseph Romley four years earlier, the royalties from his published verse and the government bonds and the oil stock, that had never paid any dividend but might any year, and the four young daughters were managed by two trustees who had been college friends of the poet and who, even in his lifetime, had managed what of his affairs had had any managing. One was a banker and one was a lawyer and they lived in New York, making only rare visits to Middletown. They considered it far better for Isolde and Trude to visit them twice a year and to such an arrangement both older girls were quite agreeable.