But almost the first remark Shirley made was, "Isn’t Jane the dearest thing you ever saw? And are n’t we just the luckiest people to get her into the family?" So then Nancy knew it was precisely the same Shirley, and was glad. "I don’t suppose she’s really as good-looking as Olive," commented Rufus, when he, too, had seen his old-time partner at tennis, and had had a game with her, "but she ’s a lot more alive, and jollier, ten times over. And her playing form ’s improved; she can serve a ball that keeps you up and doing for fair. She knows cricket too; she ’s going to teach us. I ’m glad she ’s got home. It ’ll be a good deal pleasanter for Jane over there. Shirley won’t go in for society, like Olive and Mrs. Harrison." Rufus’s prophecy proved a true one. Upon the second day after Shirley’s return, Mrs. Townsend, Senior, announced--with some languor, as if she herself found summer affairs wearisomer after a winter which had been unusually full--that a garden-party and _musicale_ would that afternoon claim all four feminine members of the household. "Our men ought to go, too," she added, "but your father simply will go to nothing that takes him away from his business, and Murray seems to be lapsing into the same attitude. Forrest, when he is at home, is my only standby, but this freak of his to spend his time travelling makes him seldom to be counted on. Shirley, I hope you have something suitable to wear. It was a strange idea for you to come home, after being two years within an hour of London, with nothing but tennis suits and cricketing shoes. If you had stopped in New York, as I expected, your Aunt Isabel would have remedied all deficiencies in your wardrobe. But as it is----" "As it is, I ’ve nothing suitable, mother mine. So you won’t ask me to go, will you?" "You must have something that will do. The Hildreths will expect you, now that every one knows you are at home. Marian Hille will be sure to be there, and you ought to be, quite as much." "I ’ve had two years of Marie Anne--as she wishes to be called now. I can do without her very comfortably for a day or two," objected Shirley, smiling at Jane. Jane was indeed rejoicing in her new young sister’s return. The relations between herself and Olive, although cordial and affectionate, were not based on so strong a congeniality of tastes as existed between Jane and Shirley. The girl, before she went away, had shown decided promise of originality and force of character. Looking at her now, as she stood before them in short tennis dress and fly-away hat, with vivacious, wide-awake face full of clear colour, it needed small discernment to make sure of the fact that here was a girl out of the common, and quite irresistibly out of the common, too.