"Ladies and gentlemen, thanking you for your kind attention, I beg leave to announce that there will be another solemn conclave in regard to this vital subject, on the side veranda, to-morrow morning at ten o'clock. Good-night, you dear old things, you are nearly asleep, and I've wearied you more than did that wretched party. Why, no! Cathy's eyes are wide open! Mercy on us, Cathy thinks she's thinking! Go on, dear, it wont harm you at all." [Illustration: "NAN LAY IN THE HAMMOCK THINKING."] With this parting fling, she hopped to the door, holding in her hand one slipper, which she waved tragically, exclaiming, "Farewell, base world!" and was gone. "What a girl she is!" said Evelyn, as the audience unbent itself. "She didn't give me a chance to agree with or to combat her theories; but, do you know, I am tired of it, too, just as much as Nan is, only she has vigor enough to rebel at the thraldom of her bright, natural self, while I keep on and on from mere inertia." "Well," said Cathy, slowly winding her watch, "I _was_ thinking, as Nan said--but it is one o'clock, and I shall not say another word until to-morrow." CHAPTER II The bell in St. Luke's steeple rang out the stroke for three-quarters after nine in the morning. Nan lay in the hammock, gazing up through the woodbine of the before-mentioned side veranda. The leaves were beginning to turn maroon and russet; but evidently she was not looking at these, for her pretty eyes were taking in a wider angle of light. In truth, there was a deep little wrinkle between her eyebrows, which implied deep thought. However, as the bell began on its ten strokes, she withdrew her stare from the far, unseen horizon, rolled out of the hammock, came down hard on her two trim boots, stood up straight, and gazed the landscape o'er. "Not a girl in sight," she said to herself, with an amused laugh; "I believe the silly things are afraid of me; maybe they think I have become one of those reformers--oh me, how shy girls are of a _cause_! Well, anyhow, I have one, or rather a _be_ cause, and they must give me a fair hearing, though I must be wiser than a whole collection of serpents." She had reflected thus far, when she espied a blue eye peeping around the corner of the bay-window. "Oh, Cathy!" she shouted; "oh, you perfidious foe! Come here! Where are the girls?"